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Should a kid’s friends be determined by caloric intake?
Paul Sassone
Updated: July 23, 2012 11:32AM
Oh, hi, Mrs. Mitz. Can Gene come out and play?
“Not with you, he can’t, Paul.’’
How come?
“Gene can’t play with you any more because you are obese.’’
I’m a beast?
“No, o-bese. That means you are fat. And if we let him play with obese kids he might become obese himself.’’
This conversation never actually took place. But it might have if a recently released study on child obesity had been around when I was a kid.
The study, by the Department
of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, found that a person’s circle
of friends can influence his
weight.
Conducted with high school students, the study found that students were more likely to gain weight if their friends were heavier than they were. And students with friends thinner than they were were more likely to lose weight, or gain weight slower, than the kids with portly friends.
I’m not sure what to make of this.
Should parents allow their kids to play only with thin kids?
I sure hope not. I had enough trouble making friends when I was a kid without the added burden of being rejected because of my weight and not just my obnoxious personality.
I guess how the results of this study are used is up to parents, educators and medical professionals — of which I am none.
But I might be able to use some of this information on my next visit to the doctor.
“Well, Paul, you really ought to drop some pounds.’’
It’s not my fault, Doctor. Blame my circle of friends. They made me fat.
“Are they all overweight?’’
Um, no.
“Then why do you blame them?’’
Maybe they’re carriers of obesity, like Typhoid Mary ...
No, that definitely needs some work before I can blame others for my girth.
And it probably wouldn’t
work, either, if I were stopped for speeding and I asked the officer to give the ticket to my circle of friends.
Probably a bad idea.
