If you do one thing this week...hang out with the health-conscious

Can healthy behaviours be catching? A new study from Australia suggests they can, and that women who see their peers take exercise and eat healthily tend to follow suit.

The study looked at self-reported data from more than 3,500 young women from socially disadvantaged areas in Victoria. The participants answered questions about their own levels of physical activity and eating behaviours, as well as how they perceived such behaviours in their friends and other women they saw in their area.

What the researchers found was that the women who moved in healthier circles were, in turn, more likely to eat healthy food and be physically active.

These findings suggest that healthy may be contagious," says Kylie Ball from Deakin University, who was a co-author on the paper published in International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.