This pilot study investigates the controversial hypothesis that the obesity epidemic is spreading in systematic patterns in social networks.  The project will explore what spreads, between whom and how the contagion is experienced in particular life histories, situations and local settings. Thus this study will investigate social contagion from a phenomenological perspective - with special attention to the role of relatedness, embodiment and morality. The empirical study takes its point of departure in fieldwork conducted in Denmark from 2001 to 2003, and will provide nuanced ethnographic data on the experiential dimensions of the obesity epidemic - thereby adding both critical reflection and ‘thick description’ to the main hypothesis of the EPICENTER: that some non-communicable diseases are in fact communicable phenomena.