I've got to like the Nutribullet now and have realised that combinations of foodstuffs vary greatly in their results. Today I done about a dozen strawberries, a tangerine, a handful of spinach and a couple of walnuts topped up with spring water. This was the first one that tasted good. I drank a pint of it.
I just wrote an anti-smoking rant in answer to some twat on facebook trying to justify their habit and bemoaning the Government's anti-smoking stance. This is what I writ down in some font or other:
I sometimes see people giving rants against anti-smoking measures and attempting to defend their right to smoke so I’m going to say a few things about smoking that will not be in it’s favour. Before I start my spiel I’d like to point out that yes, I know some folk will smoke into their old age, reaching their 80’s or 90’s before something other than smoking kills them. I also know that these folk are comparatively rare, though my friends’ father did die recently at the age of 89 and his cause of death was given by the doctor as ‘natural causes’. Up until his death he enjoyed pints of bitter and rolled and smoked Golden Virginia tobacco.
But he’s the exception and only the most stubborn people would deny that smoking is a form of Russian Roulette, albeit a bit slower, usually, than pulling a gun’s trigger with it placed against your head.
An argument often used to justify smoking is comparing it to another habit that’s not beneficial to the average human being. Such as drinking alcohol. Smoking could similarly be compared to the many varied forms of drug taking and dangerous sports, such as the Isle Of Mann TT races. Let’s face it, all give a great deal of pleasure and all are with risk to human well being.
It is no argument at all, we should look at one vice, habit or practice at a time and decide whether we’re comfortable with them or not. Saying ‘Drinking kills more people than smoking’ is like pointing at your classmate in school and saying ‘But he done it Sir’. It’s just not on, not on at all, we are talking smoking here and only smoking.
For my argument I will only concentrate on the medical aspects of smoking and not mention at all the cost and the impact it can have on an individual’s budget; the fact that a smokers’ home will never smell fresh; that smokers can be smelt in close proximity and the smell lingers on their body, clothes and hair; their breath will never be pleasant; items in their home will gradually develop a browny-yellowish tinge; if you’re a parent and you smoke in your offspring’s presence you’ll treat them to passive smoking and increase their chances of becoming unwell and smoking also ages people prematurely, smoke 20 fags and encourage those wrinkles boys and girls. No, I won't mention those relatively minor aspects of puffing snouts.
Still with me? Ok, then let’s look at the medical impact of smoking. Some smokers in denial still cling to a saying that was bandied about in the sixties and early seventies ‘But it hasn’t been proved that smoking causes cancer’. Well I’ve news for you folk – oh yes it has, just browse the Cancer UK website and there it is in black and white for you – all those chemicals you imbibe when inhaling tobacco residue are carcinogenic – fact. Consultant oncologists have likened the onset of cancer in smokers as being akin to an allergic reaction, in other words some people will develop cancer through smoking and others will not. Again, we can make that Russian Roulette comparison.
So let’s take a look at what could happen to those who will be unlucky enough to smoke and develop tumours large and small which will, one way or another, change their life – or end it – forever.
Most smokers are aware that smoking can cause lung cancer and some think that’s the only ailment smoking can give you. Some will also be aware that smoking can lead to thrombosis, heart disease which could result in a leg amputation or heart attack but many are unaware of the cancer caused by smoking that is second only to lung cancer – oral.
Consider that constant stream of smoke over all that delicate tissue between your lips and your lungs – mouth interior, tongue, gums, throat, tonsils, trachea, oesophagus and thence to the lungs. The steady flow of carcinogens leaves lots of areas very susceptible to that ‘allergic reaction’ and a cancer will form.
Apart from the ubiquitous lung cancer here’s a few other possible results of contracting cancer from smoking:
- Whole voice box removed. This will leave a permanent hole in your throat meaning you have to wear a shield over your throat whenever you venture out and of course you will lose your ability to speak. Eating could get kinda messy too.
- Part of oesophagus removed thus victim loses abilty to swallow. Only way to stay alive is by imbibing liquidised food through a tube permanently inserted into stomach.
- Radiotherapy damages saliva glands giving dry mouth. This means swallowing ability is impaired and food can only be swallowed with lots of liquid such as gravy, soup or tomato juice. No more crisps or cashew nuts for you then. Saliva is also a protection for teeth and gums and this means as a result of radiotherapy your teeth will fall out quicker than they would have done. So as well as lots of moisture to swallow food your foodstuffs must now also be soft. Or blended.
- Some types of chemotherapy (apart from the well documented nausea and hair loss at time of treatment) can also lead to hearing loss in the high frequency range.
- Tongue amputated. This means no taste, no speech and depending on amount of amputation, possibly being fed through a stomach tube. You could also consider the sexual connotations (or now lack of them).
During radiotherapy you will lose your sense of taste, you will have the feeding tube inserted into your stomach as your throat may swell so you can’t swallow, your throat and ear skin will become red, dry, sore and cracked and you will wake to see your pillows stained with blood from your cracked skin.
Now because smoking IS so pleasurable – let us not deny that, foul as it may be – smokers will put forward many arguments to justify their addiction. One is that ‘I’ve paid a fortune in tobacco taxes so why am I now being centred for penalisation by the government?’ One reply could be that yes, you’ve paid lots in taxes through buying those twenty Bensons every day for all those years but the cost to the National Health Service (and therefore the UK as a whole) when you finally fall ill will more than outweigh your contribution to the Chancellor.
The reason that anti-smoking measures are being taken is mostly because the Government has finally woken up to how much smoking is costing the NHS, it’s nothing to do with any false notion that they care for the public’s health – they don’t, they couldn’t care less if you die puffing a Marlboro. Everything, to the Government is money driven. So they finally figured it was more beneficial to the country’s budget to save money on the NHS than suck up to the tobacco barons and make their old Eton chums even richer.
So that’s my anti-smoking rant. Please, if you want to smoke, go ahead and smoke, you do at least still have the freedom to do so. But don’t EVER, EVER, put yourself across as a bunch of victimised people and don’t ever try and justify your habit.
Because you cannot justify your habit apart from saying you have a weakness.
Smoking sucks and it causes illness, it’s as simple as that.
To end, to all of you who do still smoke and would like to quit – I wish you luck.
Visit Asdas - 'Half price' for £2. Bugger 
, well as far as the diatribe well I agree with you trouble is I have tried many times to give up and failed miserably and still coughing and spluttering 
