Tag Archives: smoking

Smoke and mirrors from smokers.

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i was recently at a gathering where I was answering questions from someone who was really interested in health and how to improve his well-being.  A dear friend of mine, sitting opposite me and chain-smoking away, was getting clearly exasperated by the topic.  He had heard this stuff before.  I think the last straw for him was when I ordered a large pizza, with extra cheese, double pepperoni and mushrooms, and then proceeded to polish off the entire topping, leaving behind on the plate the entire thin-crust dough in a pile of plain carb slices!  

 

It is not a pretty sight when I eat a pizza.

 

Pierre leaned across the table, blew a puff of smoke in my direction and exclaimed in his delicious French accent, “Puf!  This is so borrring!  You always talk about this stuff when we are together.  I can tell you that I don’t do any of this health stuff, and I am much more healthier than you are.  Puf!”

 

I am sorry, Pierre, for upsetting you so, and I hereby dedicate the rest of this blog post to you!  But you, dear friend, are nowhere near being healthier than I am.  First of all, it is not a competition and you don’t get prizes for showing how healthy you are.  Each of us is master of our own body and we make daily choices that affect our health.  These choices cumulatively determine not only how long our life span is, but how healthy we are in the last stage of life.

 

If you divide human beings by health outcomes, there are only two broad categories of people; those who smoke, and those who do not.

 

I have mentioned before one simple fact.  Smokers live on average 14 years less than non-smokers.  There are many many reasons why, including heart disease, lung cancer, lung disease, strokes, etc. I won’t bore you with complicated details.  But overall, what the statistics show is that smokers have a metabolic age fourteen years higher than the average, which by definition is why their life spans are shorter by the same amount.

 

The problem is that smokers are leaner than average, so physically they look younger than average.  This lulls them into a false sense of security, so much so that in fact, they are bring fooled twice.  First by the fact that the smoking ages them nearly twice as fast as average, and second by the fact that they give the appearance of actually looking younger than average.  This is the ultimate self-deception in human health, because it happens to the entire 20% of the human population who are smokers.

 

When people ask me for advice on health and wellness, my first question is ” Do you smoke?”  A yes answer is a show-stopper.  I genuinely have no other health advice to offer a smoker than, “quit smoking now”.  No matter what else you do in your lifestyle habits, all that is eclipsed by the harm caused to your body by a smoking habit.  

In other words, if you have reconciled yourself to being a life-long smoker, do not take the slightest notice of any health tips you come across, because that advice does not apply to you. If you are unable to solve the 95% root cause of your ill-health that a smoking habit is, then what is the point worrying about the other 5%?

 


 


The benefits of smoking, and a checklist for healthy eating at parties

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This weekend I was at a housewarming party, and the two areas where people congregated were the kitchen/bar set up, and the outside balcony with the smoking set up.  I must admit that these days I have become a bit of a health bore at parties.  Someone tells someone that I am a health writer, and a small group of people insist on having a deep long discussion on my theories on health.  This is of course very annoying to the broader group who either couldn’t care less, or who would just prefer more idle chit chat at parties rather than deep discussions, or more simply they have heard my stuff a dozen times and are happy to not hear it again!  To those dear friends who continue to put up with my rants, a big thank you!

Next time you are at a party, look at the two groups of people, let’s call them the munchers and the smokers.  Broadly speaking, no pun intended, you will notice that the munchers are much bigger in girth than the smokers, who look generally lean and fit!

There are many reasons for this of course.  It is said that nicotine suppresses hunger.  But what if it is not so much a suppressant of hunger as a replacement of munching time?  Let us say the average time to smoke a cigarette is 6 minutes.  In this time, the average muncher has gone through about one serving of Doritos, which is about 350 calories including 53gms of carbohydrates.  If a smoker has say five cigarettes during a party, which is on the low side, during this time the muncher has gone through an extra 250gms of carb junk food.  Of course this is a very simplified model because one can argue that the smoker will finish her cigarette, come in to the kitchen and munch to her heart’s content.  It is also true that even hardcore munchers  take breaks from their carb inhaling.

What I am highlighting here is how easy it is at a party to ingest a quarter of a kilo of junk carbs.

Smokers will always consume less than non-smokers because 1) Nictoine suppresses hunger 2) time taken to smoke instead of munch 3) food tastes disgusting after a cigarette 4) smoking is a distraction from munching.

Do not for a moment think that I support smoking.  The simple truth is that smokers live 13-14 years less than non-smokers.  A smoker has a 1 in 7 chance of getting lung cancer.  This may seem like an acceptable risk to some, but these are the same people who buy lottery tickets along with their cigarettes at the newsagents, and the chance of winning the lottery is 1 in 7 million!  Yes, smokers are a million times more likely to get lung cancer than win the lottery!  And smokers may be lean but they are not fit in any sense of the word.  I am yet to find an athlete smoker in any strenuous sport who can compete with a non-smoker of comparable training and talent.

The point I am making in this article is that both munching and smoking at parties have their own downsides.  So here is a simple checklist for the munchers to have a great time at parties and stay healthy at the same time.

  1.  Do not eat the chips and the crackers and the bread and the corn snacks.
  2. Instead, serve yourself some of the dip in a bowl, get a small dessert spoon, and just take bites of dip.  Eat as much dip as you like, it is still a lot healthier than the chips.
  3. Do not drink beer or white wine.  Stick to red wine and whisky.
  4. If you must have cocktails, do not have sugary ones.  Stay with gin and tonics.
  5. Do not save room for dessert.  Fill your belly up with extra meat and vegetables.
  6. Last but not least, do not accept any prompting on eating from anyone with more than 20% body fat.  Remember that most people have an unconscious drive to remake the world (and their friends) in their own image.