SLÁINTE - TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH! Are Your Friends Making You Fat?
By MAUREEN B. KEANE
Bless me, father, for I have sinned. I have gained 15 pounds - most of it fat. It's the company I keep, father - they lead me into temptation. Ben and Jerry are always at the supermarket this time of year.
They encourage me to eat their pints of vanilla caramel fudge right out of the box by making it seem like it's a single serving size. I thought I could get away from them on vacation but they followed me to Ireland too. Find new friends, father? How can I after Cherry Garcia and I have walked along the cliffs of Mohr together?
Yes, it's true. The extra padding Sláinte is sitting on as she writes this didn't come from a cushion. She's sitting on 15 pounds of Vanilla Carmel Fudge Ice Cream. This column is the result of trying to find out why she is so enamored of Ben and Jerry of late.
Maybe she can blame it on her friends. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the University of California San Diego found that obesity can be contagious in a social sense.
In other words, your friend's behaviors can rub off on you. Now Sláinte must admit when she first read this she thought of women. But no, this holds true only if you are a man.
Their research was based on the creative use of data collected for the Framingham Heart Study, a large effort that continues to monitor the health of the 12,000 plus inhabitants of Framingham, Massachusetts.
This study looked at data collected over a 32 year span. Basically what they found was this: if a friend of yours gains weight, your chance of gaining weight increases by 57 percent. This effect held for three degrees of separation; friends of friends were also more likely to become obese. Even when friends were separated by 500 miles or more, this held true.
But what about your neighbor just over the fence? The results showed they had no effect on your weight if you were not friends. So the problem is not environmental - it's social. Siblings and spouses also had an effect but not as large as friends.
This study showed female friendships were not affected by obesity in the same way. Maybe because women tend to support one another when they diet and exercise. Maybe because being overweight is more socially stigmatizing for women.
Sláinte will have to find someone else to blame but you guys out there need to look at the habits of those you pal around with. Does your crowd spend time guzzling beers while watching football? Maybe it's time to join a new group that drinks water while playing hoops at your local "Y." Find people who value health and cultivate friendships among them. Your wife and children will thank you.
Could Sláinte have caught weight gain from her friends in the same way you catch a cold? In the past 10 years, research on the so called obesity virus has made the news several times.
This month a new paper by Dr. Atkinson of Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, Va., reviewed the research that connects viral infections and obesity. It discusses five animal viruses and three human viruses that have been shown to cause obesity in laboratory studies. Could a vaccine be far in the future?
Maybe Mom and Dad caused the problem. Researchers have known for years that in some families there is a genetic disposition toward weight gain. The leptin gene, for example, may be mutated in some families.
Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells. It lets the brain know how much fat is stored in the body and indirectly controls hunger. When leptin is not working properly it causes you to feel hungry because the brain thinks fat stores are too low.
Or maybe the problem was caused by her doctor. A large number of prescription medicines can cause weight gain. If you can pinpoint a time when you began to overeat, look to see if you started a new prescription.
Sláinte is not talking about drugs that cause edema or water weight gain. She is talking about those that cause you to pack on the fat. Drugs can cause you to gain weight by slowing down your metabolism, increasing your appetite, or by stimulating carbohydrate cravings.
The most common offenders include: lithium; amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant; paroxetine (Paxil) and sertraline (Zoloft) both antidepressants; olanzapine (Zyprexa) an antipsychotic; and valproate (Depakote) an anti-seizure drug.
Other culprits include: Atenolol, a beta blockes, exomeprazole (Nexium) and omeprazole (Losec, Prilosec), proton pump inhibitors used to treat heartburn. Antihistamines and oral diabetes drugs can cause weight gain too.
These are just a few and they do not cause weight gain in all people. But if you do experience an unexpected weight gain after starting a new drug, ask your doctor if you can substitute another drug with a similar effect. For example, there are several antidepressants that have no effect on weight gain.
Come to think of it, the last time Sláinte had a weight gain it was caused by amitriptyline prescribed for fibromyalgia. She gained 40 pounds, stopped the drug and lost 55. Back then it was Dryers Orange Sherbet with Chocolate Chips that she couldn't stop eating. After stopping amitriptyline, she never wanted another taste. Sláinte wonders what drug causes Ben and Jerry's Vanilla Carmel Fudge cravings? Stay tuned and she will let you know.
Obesity rates have skyrocketed all over the world in recent decades. Research indicates the problem is much more complicated than everyone suddenly losing self control and overeating. It's a mixture of social, genetic and environmental factors. So next time you want to snigger or point a finger at one of those obese folks who practice no self control, practice something yourself - compassion.
Sláinte!
Maureen Keane MS CN is a graduate of Bastyr University and member of the American Dietetic Association. She is the best selling author of Juicing for Life, What to Eat When You Have Cancer, What to Eat when You Have Diabetes and 14 other health books. If you have a question or comment regarding nutrition or health that you would like to see addressed in this column, e-mail it to Maureen@KeaneNutrition.com.
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