TWIST AND SHOUT

The twist of the findings in a study that attempted to prove that smoking causes one to put on weight is absolutely staggering.

This research desperately attempted to debunk that smoking suppresses appetite, one positive aspect of smoking which has been a given for years. But rabid anti-smokers and ‘’no safe level’’ dogmatists, cannot & will not allow anything positive about smoking to remain on record. They desperately struggle to disprove anything and everything remotely positive about smoking even if that means they will twist, torture and misrepresent the findings.

The headline of the press release and picked up by the media is: Smoking increases the chances of being overweight according to a study by the University of Navarra

Let’s examine what they found according to their press release alone. Linking to the study itself if we had access to it might reveal further irregularities.

‘’ Participants who quit smoking during follow-up showed a greater relative weight gain, with some difference between sexes: over 1.5 kilos in men and about 1.0 kilo in women. In addition, active smokers had higher weight gain than those who were never smokers: about 0.5 kg in men and 0.36 kg in women.’’

No fancy expensive study was required to tell us what everyone already knows namely that quitting smoking may cause someone to put on weight and it generally does. But this has nothing to do with smoking itself; it has to do with quitting smoking! It is as absurd as claiming that food causes one to lose weight, since one most certainly will if they lowered their calorie intake!

As for the slight difference in weight gain of smokers who didn’t quit vs. non-smokers, if it is in fact a true finding of the study, here’s how the researchers attempt to explain it:

"possible reasons as to why tobacco smoking is related to weight gain are purely speculative. All the details are not known, but in most cases there is a common denominator: they are people with less will power when it comes to looking after their health.’’

Neither finding can justify that smoking itself causes weight gain! The researchers don’t even deserve an E for effort! The only mark that should be given to them for their ‘’twist & shout’’ study is a well deserved FD – Failure for Dishonesty. Talk about junk science and waste of precious human and financial resources!

Smoking increases the chances of being overweight according to a study by the University of Navarra