To wonder if people were actually healthier when everyone smoked

Ahh.. a fat hate thread disguised as a pro-smoking thread.

Dying of emphysema and cancer being cheaper and less offensive than fatties waddling around everywhere I guess?

Look up 'causation vs correlation' - there are many many more factors at play in the issues you mention than merely smoking vs not smoking.

If you're certain that correlation = causation, then try these for size:

'Children drink much more water through the day now than they did 40 years ago - SEN is much more frequently DX now than 40 years ago. Therefore drinking more water causes SEN'.

'Dog attacks have risen dramatically following the legalisation of gay marriage - therefore gay marriage causes dog attacks'.

Are you starting to see how ridiculous this is?

Are smokers nowadays thinner than non-smokers? Diet was completely different in the past.

AIBU means "Am I being unreasonable?"

DM was an obese smoker with chronic anxiety who lived to be 96. DH, in the 60s-70s smoked, as a young sailor in the Royal Navy, as it was encouraged. He stopped in 2005, but has terrible COPD which I fear will carry him off well before his time. His DSis died at 66 of lung cancer, smoking to the end. DH coughs just like my DGF who was gassed on the Somme - it's a terrible affliction.

Sure. And perhaps we should go back to sending children to work up chimneys, in factories and down mines, because that stopped them becoming obese.

And it’s a well-known fact that people were much healthier during and immediately after WW2, so let’s start another world war and then continue with rationing for years afterwards.

I assume that you just want people to agree with you that smoking is s? I can't think of any other reason that somebody would ask what is barely a question. Smoking cigarettes is mediaeval, it is literally only because all the damage is hidden on the inside that people do it at all and for so long. Then again maybe you do smoke and it's the lack of oxygen to your brain that's made you ask such a dumb f question? Who knows, can't believe I've logged into mum's net just to answer you. 😞

I'm gone back to YouTube because I'm dying to know what an AIBU is!?!! Is it like a WAIFU? I'm out of here. And if I catch you smoking I'm going to make you eat the whole pack (!)

I have on occasion wondered this myself.

But I also think that “wellness” makes people less healthy so will probably be dismissed as an idiot too.

I’ve never smoked btw

I grew up in the 90s next to an area of high long term unemployment where people almost expected not to work when out of school, and everyone smoked. Even if they couldn't afford other things they had ciggies. They weren't fat but they weren't healthy by a long shot, and yeah they chatted and socialised but it wasn't and isn't exactly an aspirational area or place people really want to live.

Don't think your argument stacks up, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease and this is a good example.

No. In 1970, average life expectancy in the UK was 75 for women and 68.7 for men. In 1980, average life expectancy was 76.8 for women and 70.7 for men. Nowadays, it's 83 for women and 79 for men. There are many reasons for the increased life expectancy, but the decline in smoking is certainly one of them.

@Fragmentedbrain I don’t think you’re going far enough tbh. Never mind smoking, how about crystal meth? Great for weight loss, would certainly pep up productivity at work, and would save on dentistry once no one had any teeth left. Foolproof.

It's easy to mock, but I think the OP might be onto something here.

The trouble is, there were quite a few changes made around the same time smoking levels started to drop - and we can't be certain which was responsible for the changing obesity rates. So we need to think bigger.

I propose we also bring back leaded petrol, asbestos, London smogs, unregulated gin distillers, cars without seatbelts, bread rationing, and mixing alum and plaster of paris into flour, just to be on the safe side.

And TB. There's nothing like a TB epidemic for bringing obesity rates right down.

Assuming by your post that you're under 10 years old- maybe do some research before posting such garbage 🤗

Cos those nappies may prevent vou talking sh1te!!

Smoking is disastrous for people's health on an individual & societal level. Wrt all your stupid posts about people being less obese in previous decades & you glibly attributing this to smoking more in those decades:
firstly, correlation is not causation, I.e. IF people are heavier (or more obese) now that's much more likely to be because of less exercise & manual work, changes in diet (processes foods & sugar) & lifestyle, and certainly not due to cancer & heart disease inducing smoking.

If you seriously believe all the nonsense you're proposing here, I probably need to smoke some of what you're smoking, cos it must be great to escape reality like that!?

I was born in the late 1850s and everyone I knew was fat.

I was indeed being tongue in cheek. But I would still stand by "hardly anyone" getting cancer back then, if we allow "hardly anyone" to mean 2 or 3%, because cancer is a disease of ageing. Life back then really was nasty, brutish, and short. People are only available to die of cancer when they haven't already died of septic wounds, or the kinds of infectious diseases that are readily preventable with basic hygiene and vaccines.

I was born in the late 1950s and grew up in a small village where we all pretty much knew each other. There was probably no more than three women in the village who could be considered obese and they were only about a size 18 in today's sizes.

What? Maybe you are being tongue in cheek but they certainly did get cancer. I believe it was called 'wolf' on old records.

Back in medieval times almost nobody got cancer or heart disease, and there were no ultra-processed foods. So clearly everyone must have been much healthier then.

(Joking aside, has anyone else noticed that OP's argument is precisely the one used by anti-vaxxers, as in "Yes but who ever actually gets polio?")

Do you have anxiety about dementia OP?
Having watched my octogenarian mother and uncle succumb to this vile condition, and my other uncle die of emphysema (and booze) in his mid 70s, I can see why many people might think that way. But unfortunately, cancer is also a long-drawn out death.

You're probably correct as a large % of smokers would be dead and not be worrying about their weight or anxiety. 🙄

I miss the mindfulness of smoking, just five minutes, lunchtime going for walk at work, something about it makes me wistful.
But the cost, smell, bad breath and health worries. No thanks.

In the 70s my mum and dad smoked and they both died of cancer

wind your neck in OP

Less people being overweight and suffering from anxiety wasn’t just down to smoking

Should we try and get a tiny bit more going?

No.

To get people healthier we need to stop eating ultra processed foods, takeaways. Walk more. Less screen time, more time in nature. Wearing SPF. Drinking more water. Healthy work life balance. Less binge drinking. More human interaction.

So yes, we still had fat people then.

Wtaf is going on with mn these days?? Bloody fruit loops everywhere!!