Obesity may be contagious — because most people feel good about themselves if they are about as heavy as the people around them, according to new research.

This could explain the rapid rise in obesity around the world. The norm that most people compare themselves to has become fatter and fatter, feeding a cycle of “imitative obesity.”

In the current analysis, researchers analyzed data from several sources on body mass index (BMI) and people’s perception of their weight for 29 European countries. For women, satisfaction with their weight own depended on their BMI in relation to the average BMI for a woman of their own age living in the same country. Men who were overweight also tended to be happier if the people around them were overweight too.

If the trends of the past three decades continue, it’s possible that every American adult could be overweight by 2048. The figure might sound impossible, but two-thirds of the population is already overweight.

The new projections are based on government survey data collected between the 1970’s and 2004. If the trends of those years continue, the researchers estimate that 86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent. By 2048, all U.S. adults could be at least mildly overweight.

The healthcare costs directly related to excess pounds would also double each decade, reaching $957 billion in 2030 and accounting for one of every six healthcare dollars spent in the U.S.

Researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego have found two drugs that did wonders for the athletic endurance of “couch potato” mice. One drug, known as Aicar, increased the mice’s endurance on a treadmill by 44 percent after just four weeks of treatment. A second drug, GW1516, increased endurance by 75 percent, but had to be combined with exercise to have any effect.

The chemicals involved are already available, and athletes are already asking about whether they work on humans.

Dr. Richard N. Bergman, an expert on obesity and diabetes at the University of Southern California, worried that the drugs might prove to have serious side effects. However, he acknowledged that if they are safe, they could become widely used.

The drugs activate at least one of the chemical pathways triggered by resveratrol, a substance that also resulted in increased endurance in mice. Large doses of resveratrol can allow mice to run twice as far as usual on a treadmill before collapsing.

Every day, millions of people fall for dishonest ads promoting worthless health products, alternative medical treatment, or qualified but over-promising therapists. If these promises are delivered, we’ll be living in a wonderful world without arthritis, cancer, baldness, stained teeth, erectile dysfunction (impotence) and overweight (obesity).

The Los Angeles City Council has instituted a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city. The moratorium is part of an attempt to attract restaurants that offer healthier food choices.

Residents of South LA expressed concern with the proliferation of fast-food outlets in the community, which is plagued by above-average rates of obesity.

Nearly three-quarters of the restaurants in South LA are fast-food outlets. That’s a higher percentage than in other parts of the city.