U.S. obesity rate expected to hit 42 per cent

Harvard University researchers expect Americans to keep getting fatter until 42 per cent of the country is obese, Reuters reports, even though other experts predicted the obesity rate had peaked at 34 per cent of the population. Those same researchers reported in 2007 that if someone’s friend became obese, the person’s chance of becoming obese increases by more than half, and they think that phenomenon is driving the obesity epidemic. In the study, the team found that an American adult had a 2 per cent chance of becoming obese any given year; each social contact with an obese person increases the risk of becoming obese by 0.5 per cent every year. But befriending thin people doesn’t seem to make someone lose weight.

Reuters