is fat the next tobacco?

curnaco

curnaco

New member
"Is Fat the Next Tobacco?" In December 2001, the Surgeon General reported that about 300,000 deaths per year were associated with overweight and obesity, and warned that those health conditions might soon cause as much preventable disease and death as smoking.

(From: fortuneeducation)

What do you guys think? Discuss.
 
Last edited:
A pack of cigarettes has carried the warning that smoking causes cancer and lung disease for as long as i can remember... I remember asking my mother why she smoked when it carried a warning over 35 years ago and never did get an answer... People pick up cigarettes every day and begin a habit, one there is irrefutable proof that it can cause cancer and lung disease... Does everone get it? No.. people play the odds I suppose.

We've known since I was in college (early 80s) that AIDS can be caused by having unprotected sex - people still have unprotected sex every day and new cases of HIV and AIDS pop up every single day... People playing the odds again?

We've known for more than a few years that obesity is linked to all sorts of diseases...

I really believe you can educate people all you want to, and it won't do any good until it effects a person personally - they are going to do what they are going to do...
 
Without reading the article, my opinion is as follows.

No one needs cigarettes for survival. It is well known that smoking cigarettes is dangerous and potentially lethal. You know when you get into it that it's bad for your health.

Food is necessary for survival. Without it, you will certainly die (unless kept alive from a feeding tube or some other unnatural method). Too much of it, and you will become overweight, obese, and eventually severely obese. This causes other health complications that can kill you. While being overweight/obese is preventable, the means to becoming overweight is not. You must eat to live...just don't eat too much.

While I'm sure the article makes valid arguments, they are two very different problems. My problem with the comparison is that smoking shouldn't be done at all, but eating must be done in moderation. Addiction aside, it is much easier never to do something than it is to do so in moderation. If you've never tried drugs, you will not crave them. Food is essential, making it an entirely different addiction to recover from.
 
I do not think it is the next tobacco. It does not taste nearly as good and is highly inconvenient to roll.
 
I don't agree with the word "next".
But I like the comparison:
food is addictive
Some people smoke to relax when their too stressful, others eat
Both kill
Cigarretes had a lot of propaganda just like fast food has, but at least they dont put doctors eating at mcdonalds and saying that it's ok

;P
 
I've discussed this issue in some of my classes. I agree that not doing something ever is easier than doing something in moderation, but I think more is going on here.

There are real addictive food additives in, say, McDonald's food (I think our stronger cravings can be accredited to undertested, approved additives by the FDA, which literallly calls food and pharmaceutical companies their CLIENTS). There are ads for horrible foods targeted toward children (cigarette ads were too at one point). So they learn unhealthy behaviors at a young age. Yes, you can talk all you want about parents making the ultimate decisions in the diets of their children, but I remember begging my mother for junk food in the grocery store because I saw happy kids eating it on television. I remember her not getting it for me and me eating it at my friends' houses. I remember feeling somewhat mistreated over not being given treats like the other kids. And when I got old enough to make my own food decisions, they were bad ones. I think we're hooked as young children on bad food and we have to deal with the consequences as adults, which I am doing now... :)

Obesity is a very complex issue...
 
Last edited:
I agree Catherine - bad food is still heavily marketed and advertised and supermarkets always have special deals on bad food.

Cigarette advertising has been banned in the UK and the price of a packet goes up by about 30p a year... in a way making smokers pay for their own hospital treatment however many years down the line. Smoking is banned in all public buildings now in the UK as well.

In terms of what will drain healthcare resources more and lead to the greatest number of deaths, I can't decide whether it will be obesity-related or alcohol-related 10 or 20 years down the line.
 
I don't think fat is the next tobacco, but at the end if some big company wants to make serious money they will advertise it that way and everyone will just assume it's like that
 
Alot of Hype, but......

Is fat the next tobacco??

Hmmmm. I hope so.

Please let me explain.

In many parts of the world (including here in China) smoking is becoming so "uncool" that the people that do smoke are being severely limited in where and when they can do it, and often hide the fact from others. Smoking (even here) is becoming only acceptable outside, not in restaurants, bars or nightclubs or public places and is becoming more and more generally shunned by the masses. In New Brunswick, Ca, a new law has passed not even allowing parents of under 18 kids to smoke in their own cars if the kids are with them. (throw the baby in the trunk honey, I need a smoke...) On top of the restirction on where you can do it, you have to pay through the nose as well due to super high taxes. So by limiting the when and where, introducing a sense of "smokers shame" and taxing the shit out of it, we are doing something about a bad thing.

Does this stop people from doing it? Hell no, but at least something is being done. Imagine if the taxation hadn't gone up so dramatically and you could still buy smokes for a buck a pack and you didnt need to run out to the parking lot for a butt...... Oy!

So in the case of smoking, something is at very least in the works. It's not 100% effective, but at least some effort is there. 99% of the smokers I know have kicked that habit for good!

Eating however is a different story. Unhealthy crap food is advertised and pushed on us every single day. It is cheaper by far to buy a big mac than an organic apple and theres no shame in stuffing down a Super size fries. No need to go outside into the cold either. If society was lucky, chocolate bars, chips and fast food would be taxed so heavily we would really have to stop and think about how much we REALLY want that 25 dollar big mac....

I used to smoke, and I do know the addictive power it has. But I would be damned if I was going to start paying 10-15 bucks a day to do it. Thats more expensive than a pretty chronic marijuana habit I figure. If a bottle of Coke cost 10 bucks I would never drink one again. (luckily that is one habit I have kicked). And I did really feel the smokers shame, often hiding behind the building and lying to my coworkers so they wouldnt suspect I was a closet smoker.... How ridiculous!

But the sad fact is, at present 70% of western cultures are overweight. Statistics say by 2015 (only 7 years away) that will be 75%. Thats scary.

Think about that one..... 75% of the working population in trouble and quite likley dying earlier in life. What happens to the work force when 75% of it is dropping off 10-20 years BEFORE retirement age? Where are all the bodies going to come from to fill those positions?? Where is the experience going to come from to guide the newer, inexperienced (and possibly 80% overweight) workforce? Serious questions, but no serious answers....

Some things are being done, but in my opinion, not enough. Here in China, the country is definitely "westernizing" too fast. Fast food is becoming too popular, people are buying 1,2 or 3 cars per family and not walking anymore and jobs are becoming less physical. I used to be "the big one" when I first came to China, now I am nowhere near many of the people in my own office for obesity. The government here is trying however. They are spending literally billions of dollars on putting free and incredibly well designed outdoor fitness equipment everywhere, advertising on every tv station that people need to take care of themselves and try to keep fit (including, believe it or not, excellent anti-smoking ads) and turning it into a social issue. Yet still the rate of obese (not overweight, obese) children in China increases 20% every year.... Ouch! At least here it is easier and cheaper to buy fresh good food than processed crap, but the crap food is becoming too popular even still. (In our house we follow the standard traditional Chinese diet, everything fresh bought that day, nothing processed or canned)(we dont even own a can opener)

But is it too little to late? I have read in several places that the current generation of young people in north america, if nothing changes, stands the serious risk of being buried by their own parents, due to weight problems and the complications that come with it.

The best we can do now I guess is try to lead by example and show those around us it can be stopped. Its not easy, but it is in our power to do so. We need fat to become the new tobacco, so people will be taxed out the wazzoo for that crap food and beome too embarassed to eat a big mac in public.

Personally, at this point in my life I would be MORE embarassed to be caught stuffing super size fries and nuggets into my face than smoking a cigarette...

Thankfully I will avoid both! :)

sirant
(sorry for the rant)
 
Smoking is the number one preventable cause of premature death and disability in the US. If obesity approaches the morbidity rate of smoking, it is only because so many people have quit smoking.

For example, in 1950, 50% of the US smoked. So half the population were at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc. Now 20% smoke, so only 20% are putting themselves at increased risk due to smoking. Even if obesity kills a ton of people, this article is comparing current obesity death rates in the US with current smoking death rates in the US. The more people who quit smoking, the narrower the gap will be between smoking-related and obesity-related deaths. Make sense?

Also, food is not a drug. The act of eating may feel "addictive," but food is not addictive. "Addiction" requires tolerance and withdrawal, neither of which occur for any particular food. It's not like eating a certain amount of calories on a regular basis will lead to those calories not working for you anymore, as is the case with heroin. Or that you will not be able to go to work if you don't have a specific kind of food.
 
It would definitely be neat if people stopped thinking eating was cool and only ate those little nutrient supplement bars that every science fiction depiction of the future has in it.

Think about the teen movies: "Ugh, what is he doing over there? Eating? That is sooo 20th century..."
 
spartacus26 said:
It would definitely be neat if people stopped thinking eating was cool and only ate those little nutrient supplement bars that every science fiction depiction of the future has in it.
Click to expand...
I'm not eating soylen green -- you can't m ake me..

Food is good - food is to be enjoyed -the flavors, the textures, the armomas, the marriage of flavors, it can be savory or sweet, but it's incredibly enjoyable... dirt bars -not so much...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top