Are people talking about how they gave up smoking and gained ten pounds? Of course not, but this was typical chatter 25 years ago. It is hard to believe that people fretted about a few extra pounds. Even stranger is that back then, smoking was generally considered to be “good” for you. So good that the U.S. government thought tobacco was beneficial to our troops and included cigarettes in their rations in both World Wars! Our Doctors approved of smoking. In 1946, the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company proudly advertised that “More doctors smoke Camels than any other brand!”
Smoking has been ingrained in our culture since before we won our Independence. Did you know that General George Washington told the nation that if they couldn’t send money to help the war effort they should send cigarettes? Back then each one was rolled by hand, readymade cigarettes were a luxury very few could afford. Finally, in the late 19th century, James Albert Bonsack invented a machine to mass produce cigarettes making them so cheap that everyone could light up, and we sure did. No one noticed any ill effects- so much for body awareness- until the litigation against Big Tobacco publicized the link between smoking and lung cancer. Then en masse we just quit. No tapering off. How did we do it? We convinced ourselves that we could morph into super beings of health, free of all disease and able to live forever — though without pleasure. We decided to eat for health.
We’ve adjusted to living without these adult pacifiers, but to understand the connection between smoking cessation, weight control and eating for health, let’s read what Yale Science Historian Dr. Musto said in “We took Cigarettes Out of Our Mouths & Replaced them with Bagels” NYTimes12/19/2004. He explained how replacing cigarettes created a “preoccupation” on healthy eating which virtually condoned OVEREATING. He said, “You’ve read that something fights Alzheimer’s or lowers your blood pressure so why shouldn’t you have a healthy portion?”
“Healthy” — read huge — is no longer working. Since overeating per se is bad, we need to invent a new product to put in our mouths that is satisfying and sexy, but not edible. Until then, stop outlawing the electronic versions. At least until we are done undoing 50 years of warring on another weed that makes life more pleasurable.
I am 82 and have been smoking since I was 16. BUT never more than five cigarettes a day. Now I smoke a BLU cigarette that is black. My vaping device is too strong for me. The New York Times published in 2005 and article called Incendiary Device about a Singaporean entrepreneur who was raising money for a cigarette filter than took away 95% of the bad chemicals. The wellness Bitches stopped her. NOW no one understands that people smoked and didn't binge on food.
Nicotine boosts the metabolism while keeping hunger at bay.
I smoked for 36 years. It wasn't good for me. I was never fat, but had an awful smoker's cough for the last 10+ years I was smoking, which was getting progressively worse. I quit smoking 10 years ago and didn't gain any weight at all. Why? Because I substituted vaping rather than eating for smoking. My smoker's cough went away withing a few weeks, and I still get the nicotine I crave.