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Fat and Smoke Free
Smoking, as everyone knows, is cool. James Bond does it. Barack Obama does it.
But it also, as everyone used to know, helps keep the pounds off. Smoking, for a lot of people, replaces eating. Don’t take my word for it. A new study proves it.
From the National Bureau of Economic Research:
This paper aims to identify the causal effect of smoking on body mass index (BMI) using data from the Lung Health Study, a randomized trial of smoking cessation treatments. Since nicotine is a metabolic stimulant and appetite suppressant, quitting or reducing smoking could lead to weight gain. Using randomized treatment assignment to instrument for smoking, we estimate that quitting smoking leads to an average long-run weight gain of 1.5-1.7 BMI units, or 11-12 pounds at the average height. These magnitudes are considerably larger than those typically estimated by studies that do not account for the endogeneity of smoking. Our results imply that the drop in smoking in recent decades explains 14% of the concurrent rise in obesity.
Let me break out that last sentence one more time:
Our results imply that the drop in smoking in recent decades explains 14% of the concurrent rise in obesity.
For the past 40 years or more, the government has been trying to get us all to quit smoking. Which, in droves, we did. Tobacco use in the US has plummeted.
But we compensated, apparently, with doughnuts and venti lattés and Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese. What we didn’t smoke, we ate.
As Thomas Sowell has taught us, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
We might be healthier, on balance, smoking a bit more and eating a bit less. But don’t tell that to the government.
Published in Culture
I always make sure my donuts have been made with fat free sugar.
We all think it’s true because we all gained weight when we quit, but sounds like specious correlation as is most epidemiology. If I could go back to smoking cigars would I get rid of this belly, or also drink more brandy, coffee, and less exercise, especially after a big meal.
So, an orphaned misogynist who kills people for a living and….an orphaned misogynist who kills people for a living do it, so it’s cool?
Gotta get outta Hollywood, brother. Your gyros need compensating.
I quit smoking about 100 lbs ago.
45 years ago my mom got together with her girlfriends every other Wednesday night. They played bingo, drank “punch” and smoked their brains out.
I get together with my friends once a month. We play bunco, drink white wine. And one enduring topic is comparing Xanax and similar prescriptions. Boring as hell.
And no one noted that Life is just ? Terminal ?
The rest is kinda like a varied sport. George Burns smoked and appeared to last longer than most rock climbers, bungee jumpers and people that go Splat while preaching their great choices.
Maybe Andy Rooney could have sorted this all out for you.
One more reason I live in Federal Way…
If memory serves, you have a 1 in 3 chance of dying younger than you would have otherwise if you smoke.
I have no idea what the stats are for obesity.
My mother is 88, lives in a care home and doesn’t know her own children.
The years you gain by not smoking or losing a few pounds don’t look that great to me.
I have a video somewhere of an aunt smoking a cigarette and drinking a whiskey as she wished her baby sister a happy 80th birthday. I think was was 92 at the time. My hero.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
To take their explanation to it’s logical conclusion, we must presume that before we started smoking, we were all fat. But that’s not what we see.
Therefore their conclusion is wrong, there’s likely no relationship between our population-wide experiment in inducing obesity and quitting smoking.
Umm, 80-year olds?
Personally? I’ve said this before. If God spares me to 80, I’m going to start smoking again. I might even try a joint (somehow gotten to 57 without that experience). Microdosing is on the table. I haven’t taken a tequila shot since an unfortunate experience in the early 80s. It will be time to give it another try.
I will not be watching my diet, nor will I be taking my blood pressure. If I get cancer, I’ll let it take its course. I will not be taking any drugs to lower my blood pressure or my cholesterol. My BMI will be a number I don’t care about.
My theory is that GW Bush did all that sky diving as he was hoping the parachute wouldn’t open and he would go out on a good story. That’s my fantasy. To go out on a good story. Or quietly with no story at all. What I don’t want is a boring years-long story.
Dave Barry wrote something years ago; that people would eventually live to 150 years, the first 80 of which would be complaint free.
No thanks.
I was kinda hoping somebody would make that point. Made me laugh.