Is The Media Trying To Tell People Not To Be Friends Or Hang Out With People Who Are Overweight?

[Dinger]

I've heard that being fat is "contageous," and that hanging out with fat people makes you fat, and other such bullshit on ABC and CNN the last couple of days. This BS is also being promoted as "something new," from a "new study." I'm getting the feeling that we are being told to avoid people who are overweight. Have any of you seem these "reports"? What do you think? Yesterday I saw it on ABC, and this morning on CNN. Maybe I'm wrong.

[rainy]

1. There was an article about this in my paper today. Virginian Pilot n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. I saw this yesterday, can't remember which station but it was appalling. That one can even

get fat if one has an overweight friend who lives far from you?

[Dinger]

3. Found A Link (Check Out The Comments):

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=3413751&page=1

[PA Democrat]

14. The study says this is true for men only, not for women.

Oh, and even a long distance friendship with an overweight person can make you overweight?

What useful purpose does a "study" like this serve? Is the purpose to further stigmatize people who are overweight?

[displacedtexan]

4. Right up there with "studies" that show that straight college men are attracted to...

... women with big boobs.

I kid you not. I knew a Social Work prof who actually conducted such a "study."

[Marnieworld]

5. That study is definitely

http://health.yahoo.com/news/177766

I found it baseless as it used data from people who were related and/or lived with eachother. Both of those groups have otehr reassons why they could have similiar weight problems.

An article I read yesterday actually started with the advice to stay away from fat people if you want to stay thin.
I found it so hateful and at no point does it mention any conclusions the actual people make about their circumstance. I take responsibility for it- no one in my life has that much power over me to gain or lose. Perhaps the overweight stay together to avoid hate like this.

[EstimatedProphet]

6. Back off! I'm fat and contagious!

You might catch my fat!

:eyes:

[Dinger]

7. Like Osmosis, Right?

Maybe that's what they're talking about.:eyes:

[Olney Blue]

8. Too late- I already have it!

[PVnRT]

24. Good thing I'm in the other trailer!

Keep your fat germs away from me. It's bad enough that I need to take precautions against catching The Gay, now I have to be careful of catching The Fat.

[EstimatedProphet]

26. You'll catch The Fat from working on the same project with me!

YOU'RE DOOMED!

[chknltl]

9. I am pretty sure they meant.....

"Fat Freepers". Yep, already knew about the contagions too! As usual, we here in the DU are well ahead of the curve on stuff.

[woodsprite]

12. Actually, when I first saw this yesterday, my first reaction was

"Yeah, just like Republicanism is contagious."

Wish is worked the other way though - hang out with skinny people and your fat drops off. Now THAT would be cool!!!

[HockeyMom]

10. Genes

Sorry, I don't buy this. Case in point, my husband and I. We live in the same house and basically eat the same food that I cook. He is constantly battling his weight. I weigh the same (105 lbs.) as I did 30+ years ago. I can basically eat whatever and don't gain weight. My family were all small, thin people. My husband's family have all had problems with their weight. Of our two daughters in their 20s, one daughter apparently takes after her dad and one daughter takes after me. Again, genes.

Perhaps somebody should do a study to find out exactly what it is some people's genetic makeup which keeps them thin?

[Deja Q]

11. I made a new study of my own... don't hang out with negative media.

The next time a media outlet says something negative, mock them.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Yes, I think they are

[terisan]

15. They forgot to mention the study showed that supposed "contagion" applied only men, not to women.

For some reason the media is reporting the supposed results as pertainng to "people" rather than just men.

what we may have here is junk science being reported upon by junk media.

[Dinger]

16. The Story Is Coming Up On CNN (Again)

Hatemedia.

[shaniqua6392]

17. This story has been on every channel this morning!

I think it is just another attempt by the media to avert our attention from what they should be reporting on. I think they should be forced to begin each newscast with a story on soldiers killed in Iraq the day before. They should include pictures and home towns of our fallen heroes. They never report on them at all. Sometimes I will see a little blurb scrolling along the bottom that two soldiers died yesterday....and that is all. The fat story is a diversion. They are really good at those.

[Dinger]

18. I Agree

God, the corporate media is a complete joke (except Keith).

[Bitwit1234]

19. If that is true maybe some of the sticks walking around today

especially those like Nicole Ritchie ought to associate with them. I, for the life of me can not understand what any man would see in these women that have less meat on their bones than some of the people forced into the Nazi concentration camps. They look ridiculous. Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield if there were start today would give every damn one of them a run for their money...UGH.

Those sticks are the ones you wouldn't associate with, they look like they have something catching.

[fed-up]

22. please don't pick on skinny people-some of us eat more than enough and don't gain weight- nt

[Le Taz Hot]

27. I used to be one of you,

but, alas, around 45 or so . . . What can I say? Menopause and quitting smoking were not kind to my formerly skinny self.

[JVS]

20. Why would they do that? It won't help them sell cheeseburgers

[Lilith Velkor]

25. Actually, it would

The pain of social rejection will cause some to eat even more, others to become bulemic, and other others to spend money on diet plans that usually don't work.

Some will also feel really bad, "go get help," and get medications that make them fatter, and when they feel bad about that, get double or triple doses.

Either way, someone gets paid.

Funny how no-one ever thinks of the obvious solution, which is to stop hanging out or being friends with shallow assholes.

[raccoon]

21. I posted about this kind of BS yesterday.

Do you ever get sick of hearing about some dumbass study?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6758775

I don't know if this was even a study or not; it seemed too stupid to even bother to read.

[Atman]

23. Allow me to buck the "this is BS!" trend...

Someone has to. My guess is the people who've responded haven't really paid very close attention to their own social settings. But here's an interesting little anecdote which is currently going on in my own life which certainly correlates with this study (which, btw, they claim was pretty extensive); take it for what it's worth, which I admit could be nothing.

One of the two guys I regularly ski/snowboard with is pretty round. I've been riding with him to the mountains for a few years, but last year we gradually stopped spending as much time together. (I'm 5'10, 185 lb, btw, but weighed 230 about 8 years ago, so don't try the "you're just a fat-ist!" stuff on me). He began inviting another buddy along with us, who just happened to be pretty large, too. We're also weekend neighbors so we see each other pretty regularly. We noticed that while we're still friends and talk to each other over the proverbial back yard fence, we were starting to decline summer party invitations because they're always at dinner time (well, duh), around 6:00 pm -- when me and my other friends are still playing beach volleyball. In the summer, with the sun up later, we'll play until dark and usually don't eat until 9:00 pm or so. We usually invite some of the players over for a beer afterward. I very politely told them that if we don't come to every backyard dinner event it's nothing personal, we just eat late in the summer and volleyball is our exercise in the summer time. No problem, they were very understanding.

So a couple of weekends ago, we declined a dinner invitation for entirely different reasons...we had invited a group of friends over to our place already (including the neighbor in question). The two backyard parties occurred concurrently, and we could see their group across the yard. Virtually every one of his guests were "large." To top it off, I knew every one of them, and they're all what you'd have to define as "blue collar" types. They do this every weekend...they sit around the campfire or at the picnic table and eat and drink. Eating and drinking is their recreation as volleyball is ours. The crowd on our deck wasn't even mostly volleyball players, but not one single person was overweight. And the make up of the crowd included a couple of PhDs, an MD, two APRN's, a couple of engineers, even a chiropractor and a dentist.

Did we ask for weight and background checks before we invited anyone? Did my neighbor? Of course not. But for some reason, his party was a gathering of overweight "blue collars," ours was a group of thin "professionals." Was it purely coincidence? The study is suggesting it's not. I don't know the answer, but I do know that it does jibe with some of our experiences. No one is saying it's "contagious" as in "you'll catch it from your friends." But, if you're hanging with a crowd whose main social activity is eating and drinking, chances are many in the group are going to be similarly built...because you're all spending your time eating and drinking. I'm surprised that people are getting so upset at this notion. It's not exactly a radical idea that people tend to hang out with people who share similar interests and lifestyles. Does it upset people to hear this because it's applied to overweight people, too?

:shrug:

.