Obesity can be “caught” as easily as a common cold from other people’s coughs, sneezes and dirty hands.... As many as one in three obese people may have become overweight after falling victim to the highly infectious cold-like virus, known as AD-36.
posted by caddis on Jan 26, 2009 - 327 comments

Obesity has been called an epidemic in the United States. Looking at an interactive statistic [CNN, flash] of the state-by-state numbers is sobering ^mf. 64% of adults are overweight and approx 25% are obese [Wikipedia 1, 2]. The usual suspects have so far been a culture of low-exercise ^mf high-consumption (due to urban sprawl, driving, TV, ... ), microbes ^mf, genetic predisposition, and bad diet (the ubiquity of junk food with its high levels of fat, sugar and salt. Recently the high fructose levels in the common American diet has also been noted. Fructose comprises 50% of table sugar and up to 90% of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), both ingredients found in copious amounts in most American 'convenience' foods. [Wikipedia: Fructose#References, Wikipedia:HFCS]).
Now it seems that a decisive assessory is a common virus, the Human Adenovirus-36, which may really make obesity an actual epidemic. [Int. Journal of Obesity, CNN]
posted by umop-apisdn on Aug 21, 2007 - 48 comments

Obesity is caused by a virus and it could be contagious!
Yet another excuse to give fat people a hard time.
posted by lagado on Jun 25, 2001 - 91 comments

Another chink in the armor of anti-fat bigots, haters and discriminators: Scientists discover common virus appears to cause obesity. Interestingly, it also seems to lower cholesterol at the same time.
posted by aaron on Jul 27, 2000 - 30 comments