Does your social status affect your weight? If you're a monkey, it might.

Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, found that female rhesus monkeys that were lowest in status tended to choose high-calorie foods when offered them. Socially dominant females did not.

Dr. Mark Wilson, chief of the Division of Psychobiology, believes that low-status females may be using high-calorie foods to relieve stress. Their eating choices resulted in weight gain and the increased production of hormones such as cortisol. They also developed more belly fat, which is associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in humans.

Labels: overeating, pressures, society

Over the past 10 years, cigarette use has dropped dramatically in the U.S. Many people cite not only an increased awareness of the dangers, but also an increased social stigma - smoking just isn't cool anymore. Many of these same people, however, warn that trying to create a similar social stigma around obesity won't work.

"[Kelly] Brownell authored a 2006 study showing that when overweight people feel stigmatized because of their weight, they respond by eating more and giving up on diets. 'Obese people are under such enormous pressure to lose weight,' he says... 'To think that you could add much more to that pressure is wishful thinking.' The stress may make them turn to food for comfort or, as one researcher hypothesizes, might even contribute to the physiological processes of obesity..."

Instead, experts encourage an emphasis on healthy lifestyle choices like exercise and nutritious food. Stressing the importance of these factors rather than the numbers on the scale is likely to have better long-term results. Source: U.S. News

Labels: rejection, responsibility, society