To wonder if people were actually healthier when everyone smoked

[Fragmentedbrain]

(I have never smoked and used to hate going to bars etc that stank of smoke so this is a very against my own interests question but)

Smoking makes people thinner (it just does)

Cigarettes can be good for people with anxiety

Smoking is a social activity and social connection is good for health

Should we try and get a tiny bit more going?

(Not me I still don't want my hair to smell)

Don't be an idiot!!!

Ridiculous.

I think @Fragmentedbrainraises important issues even if they are not neccessarily right on every point. Every single public health intervention has positive and unforeseen negative consequences. Sure the health benefits of everyone not smoking outweigh the negative, but maybe there are some negative? The ban on smoking indoors meant people didn’t go to pubs as much and drank (and smoked) more at home instead. It doesn’t meant it was the wrong thing to do but that there were other consequences. The promotion of breastfeeding as a public health good means more babies are admitted with dehydration and jaundice - but those downsides are arguably outweighed by other health benefits. Personally I think there needs to be much more recognition that everything has negative consequences as well as beneficial ones.

They have better eating habits...cultures etc

I was watching a documentary from 1979 about the darts player Eric Bristow recently (odd I know, but Richard Osman recommended it on his podcast as a period piece showing a time that’s completely changed in his lifetime so I went off down a YouTube rabbit hole and watched it) and smoking was completely commonplace. Eric and his opponents were competing in tournaments, fag in one hand, darts in the other, there was a cloud of smoke hanging over the venue, everyone in the audience, young and old, all smoking. Then the documentary showed him going to meet and greets in working men’s clubs, a long table set ready for punters, a row of ashtrays every few feet down the middle of the table. He was lying on the bed talking to his manager, fag in hand or sitting on the train, puffing away. The documentary was supposed to be about his rise to fame and his talent, but the smoking mesmerised me. Do have a look OP because what was unmistakable was that everyone looked pasty and ill, everyone looked old (including Bristow who was only in his late teens when it was filmed) everywhere looked brown or beige and smelly and there were plenty of obese people around too. No wish to return to that. Oh and Eric died aged 60, heart disease.

Is it half term again?

I would totally agree with this if everyone could get them but the health service will gatekeep them so they're useless for most. I can't see why I shouldn't be allowed to buy them to slim down a bit if I want (and maybe resist the wine a bit better too)

You're complaining that 'people rarely think about health' while harking back to a time when more people inhaled highly carcinogenic substances? 🤔

You do realise smoking kills more people than obesity, right?

All I can say is that's one heck of an apt user name you have.

(And on next week's show: Asbestos - It Wasn't All Bad.)

I was anxious as fuck when I was a smoker! And 20 years after quitting I’m only about 3 kg heavier, so it hasn’t turned me obese.

Smoker’s lungs vs non-smoker’s lungs.

Tell me which one looks healthy, @Fragmentedbrain.

Plenty of obese people who smoke. It really does not make/keep you thin.

"I think maybe you're dismissing too quickly the fact that hardly anyone was obese when smoking was commonplace"

I think maybe you're dismissing too quickly the fact that hardly anyone was obese when hat wearing was commonplace.

Do you see how silly your argument is?

A friend who is a surgeon said it is absolutely the worst thing you can do to your body.

Oh right, so you're pissed?

Haven't got the will to read the thread, but back in the day when more people smoked and we were all thin, there also wasn't a Costa or a Starbucks on every corner selling calorie-laden enormous coffees and various high-calorie snacks/cakes etc., or Deliveroo bringing a bacon sandwich whenever someone fancies one. I think this culture of excess on demand has more to with expanding waistlines than not smoking.

My weight didn't change when I gave up smoking but I have always ate a lot and been thin.

I kind of get what you’re saying- when I smoked I was a lot fitter and thinner. Once I stopped smoking I seemed to transfer to comfort eating, and since then (over two decades) I’ve gradually gained five stones. Neither situations are great for my health!

But I live, apparently, in the town with the most smokers in the U.K., and I’ve been on their heart/lung ward with my mother, and it’s a scary place.

Everyone you disagree with isn't a troll. Life must be confusing if you think otherwise.

That's a good point.

My GP said that the NHS would save money if they paid for poorly and arthritic patients to live in Spanish hotels every winter, our climate is very unforgiving.

I am not certain you're the top genius you seem to believe.

My father died of lung cancer, as did the fathers of two of my friends, as did our next door neighbour, one of my old school friends, my first boss, last boss and one old boyfriend. That is 8 people. Most of them had some excuse for keeping on. Far too dangerous a habit to be encouraged.

Amphetamines make people thinner.

Why not put everyone on those and skip the lung cancer?