I am not a smoker. Never have been, and quite frankly, I live in a clean indoor state and love it. I don’t have to worry if I will be sitting near the smoking section in a restaurant (and let’s face it, that smoke always wafts right over the barrier wall, doesn’t it?) or whether or not I will contract a smoker’s tumor because the guy a few cubicles down lights up.
However, I have to say that I am also pretty tired of the Crusade (capitals on purpose) to destroy all vestiges of smoking from our fair society. If I see one more Truth® commercial I might just have to buy a pack and smoke it for spite. I really hate those commercials.
Do you think I am championing for smokers? Why would any non-smoker want people to smoke? Let me be clear, I am not saying that. Very legitimate studies have shown that smoking is harmful to your body and the bodies of those around you. It’s a bad habit that should be kicked. So, is, however, overeating, biting your nails and spitting. Some would say these things cannot be compared to smoking because they have no negative effect on those around you, but can we really conclusively say that? Say that to the person who gets spit on.
I’d like to propose that smoking cigarettes (we have to be specific here because cigars and pipes apparently do not fall under the same curse as cigarettes) is something like a disease. It is an addiction that some are just born with a propensity toward. I feel confident that the same doctors who discovered the gene that makes folks pig out on fatty foods and become morbidly obese will find that elusive smoker’s gene and liberate all smokers forever. It’s not your fault that you are a smoker! Just like it’s not your fault if you are fat, suicidal, abusive, obsessive, a sexual deviant...the list could go on, but I think I will have offended enough people at this point.
Here’s the issue: let’s be fair. If it applies to other things, let’s be fair and apply it across the board and not just to the things that have become socially acceptable over the years. I’m not suggesting that we should tell a severely depressed person to “buck up and get over it” (although some may need to hear that very advice), but let’s not bash those who smoke, because we should let them fall under the protective umbrella of the ‘it’s not your fault, you were born this way’ line of thinking. Instead of vilifying smokers as soft-core criminals who are shortening our lives with every puff, let’s be understanding that they have a problem that cannot be helped. They have tried to quit, they have read every warning label, they have tried the gum, the cold turkey, the social-ostracization guilt – nothing works! We should make concessions for them (and I’m not talking about the million-dollar lawsuits brought against tobacco companies).
Some of you will undoubtedly say, ‘lots of people have quit smoking’ (I know this to be true, my own grandmother quit after smoking for 60 years). And this is true! But what about people who have lost weight, overcome depression, kicked their drinking habit...what about that? Those things don’t seem to stop others from saying that if you can’t stop, then you have a fatal defect in your genetic make up.
Enough of this madness and the needless burdens that have been handed to these poor smokers. We need to do what we’ve done for countless others who refuse or lack the ability to stop whatever destructive or harmful behavior they are involved in: pat them woefully on the head, assure them it’s not their fault they do what they do, but rather a defective gene that was passed on to them...“so sorry, too bad, so sad...this is just how you are”...and then give them an expensive prescription.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
People don't get fat from "pigging out on fatty foods." That's a myth. If you were to look at the standard American diet and those foods condemned as "fatty" you'd see they're also high-sugar and/or high-starch. Like, it amazes me to no end that people condemn a Dunkin' Donut because it's "fatty" but completely ignore all the sugar and white flour in it.
And this is important because carbs and fat are metabolized differently, and if you eat high amounts of food that turns into sugar in the body, eventually it causes weight gain. Why? Because it's dangerous to eat more sugar than your body can use--your body HAS to store it or else it will destroy your organs. This is why diabetes is dangerous: because people lose the ability to store extra sugar. Fat, on the other hand, mostly doesn't turn into sugar--only about ten percent of the fat you eat can do that. The rest of it gets used for other things, not just for energy--you make nerve cells and hormones with it, for instance. Carbs, on the other hand, either get pooped out (if they're fiber) or burned as fuel (if they're digestible)--they can't be used for anything else.
And people who don't get enough fat in their diets can't achieve satiety, can't keep their skin healthy, can't make enough of the hormones they need, and the list goes on and on. And over and over again researchers have demonstrated that people who eat very-high-fat traditional diets are almost invariably slim and healthy and don't suffer the mental health problems we do.
Sorry to use your blog as a soapbox but I've done so much reading about this and every time I see someone talking about it I feel the need to chime in. I think that the misinformation we get in the media about nutrition and diet is killing a lot of people, and whatever I can do to reverse that trend, I'm gonna do.
Post a Comment