Weight loss ponderings
May. 13th, 2007 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasI know of only two things which have a real track record of helping with weight loss -- amphetamines and tobacco.
Those both have dangers. But the medical establishment assures us that being overweight also has dangers.
So it seems to me that someone really ought to compare the relative dangers of:
1. Being overweight
2. Smoking regularly, to the extent that it helps suppress appetite enough to lead to weight loss
3. Taking amphetamines to the extent that it helps to suppress appetite and increase metabolism enough to lead to weight loss
4. Bariatric surgery
If I worked for the tobacco industry, I would commission studies to quantify these things, and find a way to demonstrate that smoking was healthier than not smoking.
Of course, if I worked for the tobacco industry, I would have been working for marijuana legalization since the late eighties when it became clear that the anti-marijuana rhetoric also hit tobacco (and, in fact, was MORE true of tobacco than of marijuana). In any case, if it WAS legalized, the tobacco industry had all the agricultural, manufacturing, and distribution to benefit.
Those both have dangers. But the medical establishment assures us that being overweight also has dangers.
So it seems to me that someone really ought to compare the relative dangers of:
1. Being overweight
2. Smoking regularly, to the extent that it helps suppress appetite enough to lead to weight loss
3. Taking amphetamines to the extent that it helps to suppress appetite and increase metabolism enough to lead to weight loss
4. Bariatric surgery
If I worked for the tobacco industry, I would commission studies to quantify these things, and find a way to demonstrate that smoking was healthier than not smoking.
Of course, if I worked for the tobacco industry, I would have been working for marijuana legalization since the late eighties when it became clear that the anti-marijuana rhetoric also hit tobacco (and, in fact, was MORE true of tobacco than of marijuana). In any case, if it WAS legalized, the tobacco industry had all the agricultural, manufacturing, and distribution to benefit.