In yesterday's post, I wrote at length about this study, which suggests that obesity spreads over social networks -- that is, close friends have more influence on each other's weight than do spouses, neighbors, or siblings who aren't especially close. I found the results intriguing, and accepted them uncritically (aside from the sample-size issues I noted in the comments).

But Sandy Szwarc totally harshed my enthusiasm with this post at her Junkfood Science blog. (Hat tip: Steve Adam).

First she went after the computer-modeling techniques the researchers used. That kind of analysis is far above my pay grade, so I can't even pretend to have an opinion about who's right or wrong. If Szwarc is right, though, this is damning:

Szwarc concludes that there's a political agenda at work here:

Like I said, I can't comment on the validity of computer-modeling techniques for data analysis.

At the same time, I'm baffled by the argument that obesity is entirely a genetic issue. (I got into that at some length in this review of Gina Kolata's latest book, Rethinking Thin.) Szwarc may be entirely correct in saying that "good science" hasn't yet discovered all the reasons for the dramatic rise in obesity rates. But science hasn't figured out lots of things when it comes to health and nutrition.

So, for now, the genetic explanation is the best we have. But every single person reading this blog knows that we all have some control over the choices we make, and that those choices affect our weight. For example, I couldn't be a 350-pound powerlifter no matter how much I ate, how hard I trained, or how many grams of anabolic steroids I injected into my buttocks, any more than someone who's genetically predisposed to be huge and strong could slim down to my size.

But there's a lot of room in between the extremes.  

I agree with Szwarc that we shouldn't stigmatize anyone. We all know people who've done all the right things and still ended up looking as if they haven't even tried. At the same time, we all know people who haven't even tried but look as if they have.

Genetics can be kind or cruel. We all accept and acknowledge that.

However, some interventions really do work, as Dr. Gil Wilshire notes here:

If someone's following the pizza-and-beer diet, or eating fast food on a daily basis, why can't we be honest and say that person isn't trying? And if that person weighs significantly more than his or her parents, why do we have to pretend that person's size has everything to do with genes and nothing to do with choices?

Again, I'm not advocating prejudice or systematic discrimination against anyone. Live and let live, Golden Rule, don't judge a camel until you've walked a mile in his cloven hooves, etc. But we can be fair and compassionate without accepting that things have to be the way they are.

Wednesday blog meat

• Speaking of choices, this article says that my consumption of Diet Coke puts me at higher risk of heart disease. Researchers at Boston University found that people who drank soda of any type -- diet or regular -- had higher heart-disease rates than those who didn't. (Hat tip: Erika Francoeur.) For obvious reasons, the idea that I'd be in no worse shape if I drank an equivalent amount of non-diet soda is absurd. And the researchers aren't claiming they've found anything beyond a correlation. (Although that didn't stop one of them from recommending that people abstain from all types of soda.) So, while there's no reason to believe diet soda causes heart disease, it's interesting to note that people who drink diet soda have higher cardiovascular risks than those who don't. I put it into the same category as this study, which showed that men who don't shave have more strokes. It's fun to know, but nobody's lining up to tell Grizzly Adams he'll die if he doesn't inflict some razor burn on his jowls.
• Joe Stankowski has an entertaining take on the acronyms (or, as Joe says, "A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.S.") we use in the fitness biz.
• Mike Roussell digs up the strangest fitness study ever. Quick tease: It involves a mechanical horse and elderly Japanese diabetics. Mike sees it as an infomercial in the making. Me, I'm already looking forward to the feature film: Urban Samurai.