Teenage Girls Who Diet Are Twice As Likely To Smoke
Does society put so much pressure on teenage girls to be thin and diet that we’re also causing them to smoke?
While parents who smoke may influence their kids to smoke by example, it seems that the weight loss “benefits” of smoking also play a role.
At least it does for teenage girls.
These girls apparently believe that nicotine can help them to lose weight by raising their metabolisms.
Past evidence shows that body weight often drives people to smoke or to avoid quitting because cigarettes can affect weight control.
But a recent study from the University of Florida, College of Medicine, shows that teenage girls who diet are almost twice as likely to start smoking regularly as girls who aren’t dieting.
For teenage boys, availability of cigarettes at home, rather than dieting, caused them to try smoking.
So even though more boys were overweight than girls (30.3% vs. 20.6%), more teenage girls were dieting to lose weight than teenage boys (55% vs. 24%).
I wish these girls could see the long-term effects of cigarette smoking.
The chronic bronchitis, the emphysema, the lung cancer.
Watch someone gasp for breath with every step or see them hooked up to oxygen all day long.
It’s not pretty. And it’s not worth it. No matter how much pressure society puts on us to be thin.
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