Improving diet and physical activity: 12 lessons from controlling tobacco smoking

British Medical Journal ^ | 4/16/05 | Derek Yach, Martin McKee, Alan D

[qam1]

On behalf of Oxford Vision 2020, a partnership dedicated to preventing the forecast worldwide growth of chronic diseases, the authors suggest that 12 lessons learnt from attempts to control tobacco smoking could be used to tackle the chronic disease epidemics evolving from unhealthy diets and a lack of physical activity

Introduction

This year three new books have been published about the progress made globally in research, policy, and actions to control tobacco smoking. In addition, Sir Richard Doll reported this year on 50 years of following British doctors to document the impact of smoking on their health.4 We have reviewed the evidence and approaches taken to control tobacco smoking, well described in these new texts, because of the rapid global increase in the risk factors of unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. As part of the Oxford Vision 2020 process,5 we have proposed 12 lessons from tobacco control that might speed up progress in tackling these new public health threats. We also drew on other recent insights from tobacco control in addressing other chronic disease risks.

[SheLion]

Dora is a political fsscist from a family of Rinos and Leftist Radical Dims like Janet Mills and Peter and Paul Mills.

Interesting that the money is used for anti obesity....Dear Dora wants to expand her perview. I thought that ciggie money would be used to give away patches and nicotine gum to all who wanted it....but no! Dear Dora is setting up another little kingdom.

I swear she is running this state of Maine.  Not only is she using that cigarette tax money from Maine smokers to fight obesity, she is also using it to sponsor 5 race car teams and tracks around the state of Maine called Kick Butts Racing.  I couldn't believe it.

Plus, she gave this money to a little old lady in Ellsworth to plant a garden in the center of town.  The tobacco TAX money!  I would say this is a big miss-use of funds.

Plus, she also used her ilk to force a total smoking ban on all the private businesses in this state.  She alone is choking our economy.

The cigarette tax money that Maine smokers pay on cigarettes was supposed to go for education and for cessation for smoker's who wanted to quit, and to help sick smokers should there be any.  But you can see that the overload of money she is getting she can't handle.  She is spending it like she lost a rich dead uncle.

Dora is a political fsscist from a family of Rinos and Leftist Radical Dims like Janet Mills and Peter and Paul Mills.

Interesting that the money is used for anti obesity....Dear Dora wants to expand her perview. I thought that ciggie money would be used to give away patches and nicotine gum to all who wanted it....but no! Dear Dora is setting up another little kingdom.

I swear she is running this state of Maine.  Not only is she using that cigarette tax money from Maine smokers to fight obesity, she is also using it to sponsor 5 race car teams and tracks around the state of Maine called Kick Butts Racing.  I couldn't believe it.

Plus, she gave this money to a little old lady in Ellsworth to plant a garden in the center of town.  The tobacco TAX money!  I would say this is a big miss-use of funds.

Plus, she also used her ilk to force a total smoking ban on all the private businesses in this state.  She alone is choking our economy.

The cigarette tax money that Maine smokers pay on cigarettes was supposed to go for education and for cessation for smoker's who wanted to quit, and to help sick smokers should there be any.  But you can see that the overload of money she is getting she can't handle.  She is spending it like she lost a rich dead uncle.

[SheLion]

One more thing to think about:  If Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine got their wish, then just where would they get the money to pay for race tracks and obesity and to plant gardens?  It's mind boggling how Dora and her ilk talk out of both sides of their mouths.

She should have left the private businesses alone and spent that money for sick kids and prescription drugs for seniors.  Her coalition is a big waste of money, and the Governor wants to cut out unnecessary programs?  Why doesn't he start with them?  Something funny going on in Augusta.  I can feel it in my bones.

[SheLion]

And because of that "fudging" we have many people believing smoking or exposure is the cause - when in fact neither is the cause and exposure is only the trigger in some people.

Some scientists claim that some people who are prone to asthma have it triggered when around a smoker because it is brought on psychologically.  I know they don't want to hear that.  But what about BBQ's?  Does that smoke bother them?

And how about sitting around camp fires?  Surely they can't be around any kind of smoke if this is the case.

And what about people who heat their homes in the winter with wood heat?  Wouldn't that smoke bring on an attack as well? 

[nopardons]

They still won't listen and as seen on this thread,thus far, the smarmy,ubiquitous "HOLIER THAN THOUERS" have shown up to thumb their noses. What they'll someday find out, is that they'll be the ones who are in need of help against one of their pet habits, but I, for one, will just laugh in their dour faces. LOL

[SheLion]

'If the resident anti-smokers at FRee Republic don't want to work with me because I smoke, that is their problem, not mine. And I say the same to the smokers who refuse to look at the big picture.

I feel the exact same way.  Sometimes in here, I feel like we fell into DU hell the way we are treated just because we are decent Conservatives who choose to use a legal commodity.

Aren't we all supposed to be on the same side here?  Guess not.

[Gabz]

Have you noticed that there are more lobby's out there trying to force a certain way of life on the rest of us?

SUV's, Guns, Rifles, Cigarettes, Food Stuff. You name it. If one group doesn't like it, they are going to make damn sure the rest of us can't use it!

Don't you understand that is what I have spent all day trying to say - it is the divide and conquer mentality. We see it here every day on FR, which goes to show it is working........that is what we must stop.

The heck with the focus issue (SUV's, Guns, Rifles, Cigarettes, Food Stuff, whathaveyou) - we must focus on the bigger picture........the people that want to control every aspect of the lives of everyone - that is who must be stopped. Not smokers, or overeaters, or SUV drivers, etc - that is all of us with one aspect or another.........we have to stop fighting amongst ourselves and fight those who wish to take us ALL over.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist - but I have spent the better part of my adult life fighting this crapola and have learned my lessons well.

[mlmr]

Dora Dear is paving her way for a political life. She is spreading money around in a way that gets her plenty of press time. There isn't a MiLls alive from Farmington who didn't break their neck to get in front of the camera.

[nopardons]

Oh give it up, old friend, you ARE a complainer. We've talked, for years, about all of your "complaints" and asthma is the least of them. :-)

[brewcrew]

Funny thing about all those years that get added to your life by eating right and not smoking - they get tacked on at the end, not in the beginning or the middle.

[annyokie]

My husband smokes like a train and at 63 could probably whip up on any man on this forum. 5'10", 160 pounds and not an ounce of fat on him. He eats whatever he wants and just moved nearly a cord of wood single-handedly this afternoon.

I'm also in my middle 40's, eat whatever I like and smoke. I have no blood-pressure issues or fat on me either. I helped Mr.Okie build a barn last summer while tending two kids and a huge vegetable garden, canning the proceeds thereof, tending to three dogs a cat and 2 acres of grass and an orchard. And those were just the outside chores.

Health Nazis, indeed.

[SamAdams76]

I never mentioned smoking as a factor in driving up health insurance rates.

[Logan's Nana]

Gosh I have to chime in here!!

We recently attended a concert and the fireworks created a smoke haze that lasted over an hour. Not ONE person complained about that. You couldn't see 3 rows in front of you for awhile. The irony, NO SMOKING signs were posted every 2 feet!! LOL

But my all time favorite... the "social smoker". The one who only smokes in smoked fills bars, bums cigarettes from everyone in the place, and on Monday is back to the prudent "I don't smoke" routine.

[SamAdams76]

I'm thinking we must be twins separated at birth. Your experience was a mirror image of mine. I also cut out HFCS and hydrogenated oils which basically means avoiding all food in the middle aisles of the supermarket. Nothing but fresh meat, dairy and produce for me. If it comes in a package with an expiration date two years from now, I avoid it!

Whenever I post about my diet and exercise regimen to others, no matter how tactfully I put it, I still get labeled as one of them nanny government do-gooders who thinks I'm superior to everybody else.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Just over two years ago, I was a fatty who would inhale a jumbo-size bag of tortilla chips - before dinner! I found it hard to do any yard work at all without getting hot, sweaty and faint with my heart pounding through my chest. Not to mention the brutal back pain that enveloped me everytime I exerted myself.

I was 40 years old and I seriously thought that I was destined to spend the rest of my life sitting around on the couch or in an armchair. I started hiring people to do my yard work and other menial chores.

Well after my post this morning, I spent the entire day in the yard working, raking leaves, cleaning out the garage and shed, and a bunch of other stuff. This was after taking a 5-mile walk in the woods this morning. Zero backpain. Didn't even break a sweat. I feel like I did when I was 25.

Exercise and eating right is definitely the way to go. Now I know some will come here and post about some grandfather or uncle they had who lived to be 90 years old despite never exercising once in his life and subsisting entirely on Twinkies and Ding Dongs and Coca-Cola and then will go on a rant about how I am going to get hit by a falling tree or eaten by a mountain lion next time I take a hike in the woods. But let them say that. After all, I was here saying the same kind of things just a few years ago.

Despite my conversion to the dark side, I still will never go along with the health nazis and the nannies who want to pass a bunch of silly laws like outlawing candy bars in vending machines and forcing restaurants like McDonalds to cut the trans-fats in their foods and other such nonsense. But just because we conservatives want to fight the big-government nannies (as we should), it doesn't mean that we have to necessarily adopt a harmful lifestyle just for spite.

[JDoutrider]

Awesome site there....WoW!

[qam1]

We recently attended a concert and the fireworks created a smoke haze that lasted over an hour. Not ONE person complained about that. You couldn't see 3 rows in front of you for awhile. The irony, NO SMOKING signs were posted every 2 feet!! LOL

Oh they are on it alright

See http://www.stop-fireworks.org

Quote from their webpage

"More and more people suffer from letting-off fireworks. Persons with respiratory deficiencies, metal allergies and chemical incompatibility, but also babies and children: for all of them the health risk due to fireworks, to the chemical mixture exposed by them respectively, is extreme".

[exnavychick]

This is not fat folks against skinny folks or smokers against non-smokers...........it is right minded freedom loving people against collectivists or socialists or what ever you want to call Big Brother lovers.

We must stop fighting amongst ourselves.

*salaaming*

Bravo! Well said, Gabz!

[Gabz]

Don't you see that both of you are falling into the trap of divide and conquer???????

There is actually a position we can all agree on - keep the government out of it and let the market work.

Anyone who is in favor of more government control and pushing for laws to deal with their personal bugaboos should not be calling themselves conservatives. I am not saying that about either of you - but I do believe you both know the type I am speaking about.

I am not a complainer because I am a smoker - I am a complainer because I DESPISE un-needed government interference in private enterprise.

[Gabz]

She Lion - my very dear FRiend - you are again falling into the trap.


The issue is not smoking or obesity - it is the nanny-state and it needs to be stopped and it needs to be stopped NOW...........


Everything you say is true - but by adding other causes you are allowing the antis to dilute our message. And our message is and should remain that exposure to SHS/ETS (or whatever anyone wants to call it) does NOT cause ANYTHING. The end - period.

If we do not halt them in their tracks regarding smoking - they will use the same lies about everything else.

[Gabz]

Aren't we all supposed to be on the same side here?

Yes, we are and that is my point.

That is my point to smokers, and non-smokers - drop it when it comes to the better good for all.

Being a one-issue partisan does very little in the long run.

Being unwilling to compromise, gets no one anywhere in politics......and I speak from the experience of haveing been a lobbyist fo 20 years and a political reporter prior to that.

[Ditter]

Hi there nopardons old buddy! You have been a lot nicer lately. I haven't seen you tear into anyone for little or no reason and your typing has improved. Have you given up the sauce? ;9)

(See, we can say anything to each other as long as we put a smilie face at the end.)