“Kachoo!” could be the sound of a kid getting fat. New research shows children were 50 lbs heavier on average if they had been exposed to adenovirus 36, a virus that causes the common cold and mild stomach upset.

But before you swap your diet pills for Kleenex, be advised that it’s a classic cause of correlation vs causation. As one doctor said to Bloomberg, “Does this virus disrupt certain pathways and cause obesity? Or, do obese kids tend to have this virus more often?”

Childhood Obesity Might Be Linked to Strain of Cold Virus [Businessweek]

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