Thanks for an excellent thread.
I think the original question was, does smoking interfere with weight loss. I think that we have anecdotal evidence that it does not.
Along the way we have explored some social issues! Fred is right, there is no real evidence that second hand smoke is causing cancer. I saw a 20/20 recently that explored that topic, and it is true. The argument has hung on the hinge of a discredited study.
Here in NYC, in Harlem specifically, they found one third of the children have asthma. Cause? Environment. I wish we were as passionate about environmental issues, as we are about smoking. Whats killing those kids are the toxins all around us, air and water, these things are killing us, but like the 90% of big fish missing from the ocean, they get little attention. The cost of Americans being overweight is far higher to each of us than smoking is. Again, there are no concrete steps taken by public interest groups or the industies fueling this obesity problem, thats why what Atkins has done is so right on. I wish he had lived to write his next book about the national epedemic of dia-besity.
We are all focusing on getting to a weight loss goal here. That step alone is an incredible one to make and our success average is expected to be about the same as someone quitting smoking, so we need to be strong for one another on that topic alone.
That said, I hope we get that national campaign to ban sugar going!