Ha, i came across this random article while sufting the net.
Pretty interesting.
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Friends Can Make You Fat! Is Obesity Contagious? Next Article >>
An interesting twist regarding the "obesity epidemic"...obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers just recently reported. When a person gains weight, close friends tend to gain weight as well.
A study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved a detailed analysis of a large social network of 12,067 people who had been closely followed for 32 years, from 1971 until 2003. The investigators knew who was friends with whom, as well as who was a spouse or sibling or neighbor, and they knew how much each person weighed at various times over 30 years. That let them examine what happened over the years as some people became obese. Did family members or neighbors grow fatter also? The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. that increased a person's chances of becoming obese by 57%.
The influence of the friend remained even if the friend was hundreds of miles away. The greatest influence of all was between mutual close friends. The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say. But since most people were gaining, not losing, over the 32 years of the study, the result was an obesity epidemic.
According to Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a doctor and professor at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator in the new study, one explanation is that friends affect each others' perception of fatness. When a close friend becomes obese, obesity may not look so bad.
These findings, according to the researchers, can help explain why Americans have become fatter in recent years. In effect, each person who becomes obese was likely to drag some friends with them. Their analysis was unique because it moved beyond a simple analysis of one person and his/her social contacts, and instead examined an entire social network at once, looking at how a person's friend's friend's friend's, or spouse's sibling's friends, could have an influence on a person's weight.
This may mean that something in the environment seeded what many call an "obesity epidemic", leading a few people to gain weight. Then social networks let the obesity spread rapidly. It also may mean that the way to avoid becoming obese is to avoid having fat friends.
The calculations show that, on average, a person who became obese gained 17 pounds, and the newly obese person's friend gained 5 lbs.. But some gained less or did not gain at all, while others gained much more.
The data Dr. Christakis needed was contained in a large federal study of heart disease, the Framingham Heart Study, which followed the population of Framingham, Massachusetts. The study's records included each participant's address and the names of family members. In order for the researchers to be sure they did not lose track of their subjects, each was asked to name a close friends who would know where they were at the time of their next exam, in roughly 4 years. Since much of the town and most of the subjects' relatives were participating, the data contained all that Dr. Christakis and his colleagues needed to reconstruct the social network and follow it for 32 years.
Many say the findings is are groundbreaking, and can shed new light on how and why people have gotten so fat so fast. However, Dr. Stephen O'Rahilly, an obesity researcher at the University of Cambridge, said the uniqueness of the Framingham data will make it hard to replicate new findings. No other study that he knows of includes the same kinds of long-term and detailed data on social interactions.
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Aww. this is so sad.
No wonder i am losing friends.
But on the other hand, if its true, its good too.
It just means that standing beside them wont make me look as fat.
Cause of the lesser contrast.
Hahaha!
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The 12 Types of Emotional Hunger
By: Dr. Roger Gould, M.D.
Below are the 12 types of emotional hunger that fuel emotional eating. In order to lose weight for life, you will have to conquer all 12 types. Look over the list -- which type of emotional hunger derails your diet?
Type 1. Dulling The Pain With The Food.
If you get really hungry when you feel angry, depressed, anxious, bored, or lonely, you suffer from Type 1 emotional hunger, and you use food to dull the pain that these emotions cause.
Type 2. Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones, But Cake Won't Heal What Hurts You.
According to Dr. Gould and Mastering Food, if you react by getting hungry when others talk down to you, take advantage of you, belittle you or take you for granted, then you suffer from Type 2 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid confrontation.
Type 3. A Full Heart Fills An Empty Belly.
If you crave food when you have tension in your close relationships, you suffer from Type 3 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid feeling the pain of rejection or anger.
Type 4. Hate Yourself, Love Your Munchies.
If you tend to become hypercritical of yourself, if you label yourself "stupid," "lazy," or "a loser," you have Type 4 emotional hunger. You eat to "stuff down" self-doubts.
Type 5. Secret Desires Have No Calories.
If your hunger gets activated because your intimate relationships don't satisfy some basic need like trust or security, you suffer from Type 5 emotional hunger and you use food to try to fill the gap, according to Dr. Gould and Mastering Food,
Type 6. Forty Gulps And The Well Is Still Empty.
If you eat to make up for the deprivation you experienced as a child, you have Type 6 emotional eating.
Type 7. It's My Pastry, and I'll Eat If I Want To.
If you eat to assert your independence because you don't want anyone telling you what to do, you have Type 7 emotional hunger.
Type 8. I Can't Come To Work Today--I'm Eating
According to Dr. Gould and Mastering Food, if your appetite kicks in when you're faced with new challenges--if you use food to avoid rising to the test, or to insulate yourself from the fear of failure--you have Type 8 emotional hunger.
Type 9. Aroused by Aromas, Not by the Chef.
If you stuff your face in order to avoid your sexuality-either to stay overweight so that nobody desires you or to hide from intimate encounters--you suffer from Type 9 emotional hunger.
Type 10. I'll Beat You With this Éclair.
Emotional eaters often eat to pay back those who have hurt them, often in the distant past. They use their bodies as battlegrounds for working out old resentments. If you do this, you're really battling type 10 emotional hunger
Type 11. Peter Pan and the Peanut Butter Cookie.
If you eat to make yourself feel carefree, like a child, you have Type 11 emotional hunger. You eat to keep yourself from facing the challenges of growing up.
Type 12. That Stranger In Shorts Wearing Your Face.
If you overeat because you fear getting thin, either consciously or unconsciously, you have Type 12 emotional hunger.
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I think that i am suffering from nearly all the 12 types of emotional hunger.
Haha!
Actually, I was thinking of dedicating to whole post to Wen jie and ah kun.
For being the greatest cousins in the world.
But after reading wen jie's entry, i have decided to backed out.
For one, whatever that i wanted to say, she said it all.
For two, her english is more powderful then me.
ANd lastly, somethings can never be expressed into words.
Her entry.
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managed to meet up with boon today..=) in jurong east.. his laptop got some problem
u see. so, he needed to the the acer place to get it fixed.. didnt managed to meet up for very long as i had to rush for meeting at river walk.. a pity. we had only about 1 plus to 2 hours together.. but love the time spent with this guy. =)
we are planning to meet up next week.i hope we will make it happen..
what can i say.. but i really love boon and kun so so so so much.!
to me, they are even closer to me than normal cousins. they are just like my own flesh and blood brothers. maybe many people cannot comprehend our relationship.. after all, we do seem so close.. not like normal cousins. but that's the way it is between us. we are that close. hmm. after all, we really grew up together..
tonight, i feel just like boon. wondering, years from now, will we still stay the way we are now?
as we progress with our own lives, will we still stay close?
i hope we do.
because there are no brothers quite like them in the whole world.
we went through so much together. you can say thick and thin. in the most literal sense. we grow fat together, we slim down together. there can be days we just spend a lot of $$ together, hang out, and all. there can be days the 3 of us survive on 5 dollars.. we shared everything. we even shared the same bed. food. drinks. clothes.(only home casual clothes la!), we lent each other handphones? bags, money, mp3s, and so much more.
there is total trust that we share with each other almost everything. it is just so easy to share things with them.
we can talk about everything under the sun. everything.
i really treasure them so much so much.. i wish that i will never lose them. never never.
i wish that through our days of youth, adulthood, parenthood, to the days we grow old,.. we'll never be apart.
i wish. even when we die, we'll go to the same place, up there and not down there.
i wish i wish i wish.
there is nothing i wouldnt do for them.
my dearest kun and soon.
i love you guys.
hope we'll never take each other for granted. our close friendship never ends.
one day, when we have our own husbands and wives, we will not grow apart.
our children will be just like us. so close as well..
i wish i wish.
my wishlist:
K.W.S will never be disbanded.
K.W.S will live happy lives.
bros and sis forever--eternity.
=)
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Just to add on to what she have said.
I believe that apart from the thick and thin.
We have this mutual trust in us.
There were nights when we just poured out our problems to each other and ended up not having enough sleep simply because it took up the whole night.
Perhaps thats what soulmates are for.
And there were also nights when we played puzzle bubbles and monopoly together so that we can just spend time doing something together.
Ha.
And there was also time when we sit and lamed for a couple of hours without any thing achieved.
But certainly, it brought joy.
Come to think of it, i did really took them for granted many times.
Yet, they didnt blame me.
They played an essential part in my life and contributed to pretty much of who i am today
They are that great..
I am just glad, to have K.W.S in my life.
Even thou we hasnt been meeting up lately, we will stay as close as ever.
Distance and time was never a problem, it wasnt and it will never be.
So 10 to 20 years down the road, we will still stay as close yea?
Ha, and we came into an agreement that next time, when we are choosing our future mate, he/she must accept K.W.S, else, they FAIL!
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Many great people in my life that if given a choice, i would never wanna lose.
Guys, still remember this?
I still has it with me whenever i go.
Its always in my bag, together with my laptop. ha.
And i still has the note the claudia wrote for me during graduation in my wallet.
They never fails to bring me a smile whenever i am reading through what that has been written on the coloured paper.
Looking through what that has been written.
They are heart warming.
Things like "Your zeus and phantom lancer always own me one!"
Reminds me of the time, i totally thrashed GX because he was is always the feeder.
And, "TKD king, must kick more then nicer figure then more shuai"(Took me quite long to read his plagirism)
Wah seh, people now muay thai king liao seh.
Then everytime say i useless cos always skip training.
But i think that time he also nothing better to say lah.
So random.
Hahaha, Please be more in depth next time.
Ha, and, "dont be a glutton!, 60kg ok? if not treat at sakae ah!"
A single sided promised made by chero.
I am still trying not very hard to achieve it thou.
And I know, I am a "good listener" claudia, hahahaha.
And ya, i know, You will miss my singing=).
And valer ah, i didnt know you saw the serious me when having tuitions with me leh.
Perhaps, i look the most serious when i am sleeping.
KK has nothing much to say to me cause i am just living opposite his block.
But still appreciate me for always listening to him after jogging.
That was like many millions years ago.
And lastly, "known him since sec 2, wasnt really on good terms."
He always like to create random jokes which "gets into my skin"
And i still remember that particular moment when he wrote this.
Because on the paper he wrote,(you just bought your KFC meal and had just prayed).
I think the only person that any one can associate these random jokes with will be ah hao.
I didnt know that people of 4e4 knows me as SUperstar thou.
Because majority started off the message with.
"Hey Superstar!"
Haha, How i wish ah!
By the way, you know what joey randomly wrote?
"You like to sleep, eat ..."
I almost vomited blood.
That sounds so not like a farewell messege lo!
But luckily, he added
"and you sing well"
That rather, appeals me greatly.
But really, credits goes to valer hui qi and some other not known girls for compeling them together.
It really means alot to me=)
Although some of you might not even recall writing all these things.
But it's there, for my pleasure.
haha, sounds so wrong.
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I am doing PHOTOGRaPHY THIS SEMESTEr.
WHich means that, i will have to get a Digital camera.
Heck, if i have known that earlier, i would have bought a walkman phone or a cheaper phone.
ARgh.
HAving lots of design course this semester.
Hope that i will pull through please.
i am right handed.
Need to get some sleep, its getting way too late!
SPeaking of which, do you know that if you dreamt of flying, train travelling through a tunnel, entering a room, walking down a walkway, crossing a bridge, and i think you get the idea, it actually means that sub-conciously, you are craving for sexual intercourse.
Or, if you dream of apple, peaches and grapefood, you are craving for breast.
And, if you dreamt of umbrella, bullet,fire, snake or stick, it actually means male organ.
Lastly, if its tunnel, caves, boxes, closet,bottles or even ships, it means female organ.
Haha, that's part of Frend's theory of manifest content of unconcious wish furfilment theory.
Eh, just a very interesting thing found in my psychology textbook.
School's reopening pretty soon!
7 Weeks flew past just like that.
But i guess this holiday is the most fruitful holiday that i ever had.
Simply because, I have been working.
And not just rotting my time away at home.
So, round of applause for that.
As of now, i am getting myself mentally prepared for sem 1.2
I must score well this time.
While juggling my work all together.
SO, a pat on my back and shout, I CAN DO IT!
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You know, when i think about the future, and look at my friends,
I always have this numb and sour feeling.
I just hope that 10 or 20 years down the road, we will still stay as what we are now.
For what future holds, no one knows.
But for now, i am glad.
And whenever i think about where it all begins,the things that we've been through, or even the childish arguements that we had, i never fail to smile how foolish i had been.
Ha.
People,help mE!
After working for six consistent full shifts for 1 week, i am dropping dead.
And that excludes the amount of OT that i worked, and the amount of solo's that i had to do because we are short of partners.
Tomorrow is my only day off, and after week, work again.
Woo lala. Dieing
