I was just thinking today that you always hear that smoking is the #1 cause of preventable deaths.

I remember not too long ago hearing that 80% of the population doesn't eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables and something like 80% don't exercise enough.

Okay. So doing those two things supposedly not only ward off disease, but make you healthier.

Then I remembered what a cardiologist had written somewhere at the BMJ, about how much life is lost from SHS exposure. Some of his patients had asked him if their spouse's smoking was killing them. So one day he sat down with his calculator so he could give them an answer. Here is what he concluded: If everything they say about SHS is true you're spouse's smoking will take 15 days off your life.

All right, so I was thinking that not eating right or exercising must take some time off your life, even if only a day because your body's just too weak to live and breathe one more day. If you had eaten one more apple a week or 5 more green beans a month your body could have fought off death one more day. I don't know why this couldn't be true.

Anyway, as eveybody knows, a smoker dying at ANY age is still called a preventable death. And at least to the average life expectancy age *any age actually I believe), it's called a premature death.

So what's my point? Tobacco is not the leading cause of preventable deaths. Lack of proper diet and exercise is, prematurely killing almost 2 million Americans each year, including smokers because if they had eaten better I'm sure they could have sucked in at least one more breath.

And there you have it. Maybe.

Impeccable science, Squeezer. Once again, you've nailed it.