Image courtesy of m.a.r.c. on flickr
Ok, seriously…Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up in the air and give in to the inevitable tide of “nothing you do is good for you anymore.” Seems like every time we get our heads around the right way towards healthy living someone has to come along and throw a monkey wrench in the works. It seems as though the list of food and drink you should or should not consume fluctuates wildly week to week, and sometimes the exercise du jour turns out to be more damaging to your body than beneficial. It’s maddening!
One thing we can all agree on, though, is that smoking is bad for you and that if you smoke quitting the habit is probably the best thing you can do for your health.
Right?
Not so fast, sparky.
According to a study published in the January 5th issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine smokers who quit have a 70% higher chance of developing Type II diabetes in the fist six years after they do so than people who never smoked at all.
Now if you look closely at the study the reason this is the case is a pretty obvious one. People who quit smoking have a tendency to gain weight for the first six years after doing so, and obesity is the major cause of Type II diabetes. This is one of those situations where correlation does not imply causation. You aren’t at a higher risk for diabetes because you quit smoking, you’re at a higher risk because you put on weight in the wake of doing so.
As the researchers involved here rightly pointed out the best thing you can do for your health is not start smoking at all, but if you missed the memo on that and already took up the habit you shouldn’t let this kind of thing prevent you from quitting. Knowledge is power, and if you take steps to be mindful of the possibility that you might put on weight after you quit smoking you should be fine. Get in some daily exercise to take advantage of your newly expanded lung capacity and make sure you don’t replace cigarettes with food. It IS possible to quit smoking without gaining weight, you just have to make a plan to prevent those extra pounds from showing up while you go through detox. Now you know the risks, and knowing (as they say) is half the battle.
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Interestingly enough, it was my girlfriend quitting smoking that led to me losing a heap of weight and getting into the fittest shape I’ve been in in my whole adult life.
She quit smoking and put on a little weight. Nothing you’d even notice really, I’m sure she only noticed herself because she makes a lot of her own clothes and is accustomed to them fitting absolutely perfectly. So she decided to go on a diet (the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet – http://www.csiro.au/science/TWD.html) and I went along for moral support. A year later, I’m about twenty kilograms lighter and almost exactly where I want to be.
You know, I have to admit that personally I do MUCH better on the whole diet and exercise front when I’m not smoking. The act of smoking in and of itself makes me feel less healthy and as a result my willpower to do the “right things” is considerably less.