Smoking

[Guest guest]

It's a pity there is no hard hitting anti-smoking campaign like I saw when I

was young and influential in Auz. The got a smokers lungs and wrung them

out with all the tar and gunk collecting in a large beaker showing how much

tar a smoker inhales.

I love it the way smoking is looked down on in Auz, here it's expected as

part of a pint. I had a great shirt with a ciggi asking " mind if I smoke? "

and an arse saying rhetorically " mind if I fart? "

They also had a cartoon character (had a name, can't remember) trying to be

cool with his mates by smoking (while spluttering) and all his mates saying

" don't be such a looser " . At the time I didn't think much, but now I

realise it definitely had an effect on me.

 

 

 

Lesley Dove [100706.3632]

22 May 2001 11:51

vegan-network

Re: South Wales vegans

 

 

 

Yes, the lungs of smokers get clogged with black tar and soot

deposits, compare to a real coal fire and the soot up the chimney

that builds up, that is how smokers' lungs are. This is inevitable

for any smoker (whether cannabis or tobacco), and this is even before

the hundreds of toxins in the smoke get to their bloodstream, and in

a pregnant woman those poisons get into the unborn child too.

 

I was reading the other day that obesity was second only to smoking

as a cause of cancer, about 7% of the fatal cancers affecting non-

smokers could be attributed to obesity.

Mind you there is overweight and there is obese, which is calculated

by the Body Mass Index. I was just within the obese level when I

decided I had to tackle the problem, as my backside was threatening

to cause a total solar eclipse.

Certain specific cancers are associated with obesity. I don't know if

anyone has studied enough overweight vegans to see if we are at more

or less risk or the same as omnis, that would be interesting, because

for instance our cholesterol levels are different, even if we are

overweight. My husband is overweight too, but when his cholesterol

was tested it was a lot lower than expected for a man of his weight,

and that has to be because of not eating animal fats.

I highly recommend Weight Watchers but with my own warning added,

getting down to a healthy weight can increase fertility!

After the baby, I am going back to following WW points system, I hope

it allows for breastfeeding, WW points counting is highly effective

and can work fine for vegans. You can eat what you like so long as

you stick to your points limit. It really encouraged me to fill up on

the right foods to keep my points low, so I didn't get too hungry.

Oh, and women are supposed to have more body fat than men anyway, we

aren't meant to be skinny waifs!

Like you, I know that being overweight is a problem for me, mostly

since having the kids (I used to be naturally quite the ideal size),

and I don't get defensive. I know I am fat and it isn't good for me,

I don't mind too much if people tell me it's bad for me, especially

if they have helpful ideas I can follow in pregnancy.

 

Lesley - chewing virtuously on a raw carrot.

 

 

> I can't understand why people keep denying the dangers .surely

putting smoke

> into a filtering apparatus[lungs],is going to put them under strain

and

> cause harm.

>

> I'm overweight .I' don't mind being told I will shorten my life etc

because

> its true .there's no point in my saying its my business etc or the

> scientists may be wrong -they can be- but it's clear from the

number of

> early deaths from obesity and smoking,that its not a healthy option.

>

> Lesley is only trying to advise.I can't understand why people get so

> defensive

> Angie

>