The Popcorn Stand: It’s the Great American Smokeout so I’m giving up cheeseburgers

The Great American Smokeout is today and again I’ve decided to give up cheeseburgers as a gesture of moral support, I guess. That’s because I’ve never smoked anything in my life, not a cigarette, not a cigar, not a pipe, not marijuana, not anything. Never vaped anything, either.

I don’t write this to brag because I don’t smoke because it’s bad for my health. There are a lot of things I don’t like to eat that are good for my health so even if the Surgeon General would come out and say smoking is good for your health, I still wouldn’t do it.

That’s not to diminish how bad smoking is for you. Surgeon General C Everett Koop once said if the tobacco industry really was concerned about truth in advertising it would change one of its marketing slogans from Alive With Pleasure to Death With Agony and I’ve seen that first hand with others I’ve known because of smoking.

So I’m thankful I’ve never been attracted to sticking something in my mouth and lighting it on fire and inhaling it into my lungs. But like I said I do plenty of things that aren’t good for my health. I drink too many sodas, I don’t exercise enough, but I’m willing again to give up cheeseburgers although for how long I don’t know.

I’ve written this before and I can’t find the source as I saw it a long time ago but I read somewhere eating a cheeseburger is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes. So at least for now I’m removing that detriment to my health from my life.

But now that I’ve finished writing this column I’m going to the vending machine to get a Pepsi.

— Charles Whisnand