October 11th, 2009Weight Management Outlined – Losing Ten Pounds
Our friendships can have quite an influence on how we live our lives. Apparently, if we’re in the company of a person for any length of time, we start to mimic their habits. This is usually thought to reflect in people’s opinions and attitudes; having a mutual regard for certain things, like the law or education for example.
However, studies are now also suggesting that having overweight friends makes it more likely that we will be overweight too. According to a recent news article, we have a tendency to consume more when eating with heavier people who we know well. A US research team looked at kids eating habits. They found that the heavier ones ate more when they were with their heavier pals than when they were with their slimmer friends.
The entire group, who varied in weight and were aged nine to fifteen, ate more when they were with their pals. But pairing up overweight friends led to the biggest consumption of all. The research was featured in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It discovered that young teens eating habits are definitely affected by the company they keep.
Frankly, having more relaxed habits when with friends is not a big surprise. We all feel more awkward in strange company. With friends, we gain a sort of unspoken permission for our actions. In a subconscious way, we permit them to define tolerable behaviour.
The study took 65 young people of mixed weights and observed them for 45 minutes. Some were with a friend, and some with a stranger. They were given games to entertain themselves, along with snack food, fruit and veg.
With each of the pairs, the ones who knew each other before the experiment got through more food than the ones who didn’t. But overweight friends ate the most of all. And the differences were quite significant.
An average of seven hundred and thirty eight calories was eaten by overweight teens who paired with a friend. Yet the larger kid who paired with a regular weight buddy only ate four hundred and forty four calories. Interestingly, regular weight kids averaged approximately five hundred calories no matter what weight their friend was. The larger kids desire to be like their friends is a common notion. We see this also in relation to smoking at an early age.
Back to the eating patterns – and the researchers concluded that the way children eat is very much tied into the habits of their friends. But this can be argued both ways – if a young person is taught sound nutrition and puts it into practice, they could be instrumental in influencing many others. What better reason for more nutritional training in schools?