Since the average size of a dinner plate has grown by almost one-quarter over the past century, it is not surprising that controlling portions can be a daunting challenge. Perhaps the most prominent proponent of portion control has been the former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. Using his mayoral pulpit and his pocketbook, Bloomberg has worked to improve public health on many fronts. Thanks to his efforts, smoking was outlawed in public places in New York City, trans fats were banned from most menus, and calorie counts are now routinely displayed. However, the courts struck down his proposed ban of the sale of sugary drink servings larger than 16 ounces. They opined that the ban was “arbitrary and capricious.” Though many critics viewed Bloomberg’s public health efforts as a form of meddling in the private lives of citizens, his efforts should be applauded. As a society, we are failing miserably at curbing our calories, and some imposed discipline might not be such a bad idea!
If Mayor Bloomberg cannot succeed in getting us to consume wisely, can peer pressure triumph? Using the cohort of the original Framingham Heart Study and their families, researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston performed a quantitative analysis of the nature and extent of the person-to-person spread of obesity as a possible factor contributing to the obesity epidemic.11 Their extraordinary findings suggest that obesity may actually spread in social networks in a quantifiable and discernable pattern that depends on the nature of social ties. They found that social distance appears to be more important than geographic distance within these networks. Spouses, who share much of their physical environment, may not affect each other’s weight gain as much as mutual friends do. Pairs of friends and siblings of the same sex appeared to have more influence on the weight gain of each other than did pairs of friends and siblings of the opposite sex. This study also provides support for the social nature of the induction of obesity, since it seems likely that people are more likely to be influenced by those whom they resemble than by those they do not. However, this observation contrasts with the findings of a recent study of twin mice that were discordant for obesity. In this study, fecal transfers from the thin to the obese sib helped to reduce the latter’s weight.12 Mayor Bloomberg, are you listening?
