>>But here is the one thing I'll never understand about smoking. Many in their 50's and 60's (and up) say things to the effect that "when I started smoking, we didn't know about all the health dangers of smoking". I don't understand why it would take a report from Doc General to generally conclude that lighting something up, inhaling it, and then exhaling smoke would be dangerous to your health.
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>>Kevin
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>With all due respect........that is an awful lot of 20/20 hindsight. I imagine that 40 or 50 years from now people will be saying about us "How could they not have known????"

I agree about the 20/20 hindsight.
Here is some current "conventional wisdom" that may be killing more people than smoking.

There is a huge increase in diabetes in the last few decades.

It is not a big deal in the News - YET.
Something like 50% of our health care dollars are being spent on the complications of diabetes:
Heart attacks, kidney failures, blindness and many other expensive chronic health problems.

Sedentary lifestyles are one of the causes - most kids don't walk to school anymore, and many adults just sit in front of a monitor all day. It is not just the weight gain, it is directly about lack of exercise. That part is not controversial.


Another big cause is a high carbohydrate diet, even a so-called "healthy diet" with plenty of whole grains and fruit and low fat.


The diet part is very controversial.
The Heart Association, and even the American Diabetes Association is still recommending a high carbohydrate, low fat diet.
The vast majority of doctors push the conventional "healthy diet" and pills for their diabetics.
"Success" for conventional doctors is getting blood sugars down to a level that is *above the non-diabetic range*.
"Success" means *slowing down* the "inevitable" diabetic problems including foot amputations, kidney failure, heart attacks, etc.

There are a few doctors who are considered NUTS, out of the mainstream who are getting good results.
The low-carbohydrate high-fat diet these "NUTS" follow is considered voodoo by the mainstream.
"Success" for them is getting their patients blood sugars down to the *bottom of the non-diabetic range*.
The low blood sugars seem to reduce cholesterol and triglycerides better than a low fat diet.
"Success" for them includes *eliminating* the so-called "inevitable" diabetes complications.

Give us a few decades of 20-20 hindsight, and our current "conventional wisdom" about a healthy diet could end up looking just as foolish as the Doctors who endorsed Camel Cigarettes in the 40's

Best,
Michael