I can smoke if I want to

Few t-shirts have even made me genuinely laugh-out-loud, but one I saw in New Zealand did just that.

It read:

I can smoke if I want to, so f*** off. 

I think that sums up the attitude of many smokers.  You can drone on and on about the negative health effects of smoking, but it is their body, and the rest of us can just f***off.

The "it's bad for your health" argument is just not an effective one.

What I do think is a good argument is this: For decades, Big Tobacco has systematically lied to the public. They have pushed cigarettes onto children, funded bogus studies to confuse the public, lobbied hard to deny secondhand smoke is dangerous and done all they could to promote a product that when used correctly will kill you.

Do you really want to give your money to line the pockets of such people?  I certainly don't.

I think similar arguments can be made in regards to food.

I can eat sugar-laden processed food if I want to, so f*** off

Same idea.  Sure I can eat the bowl of fruit loops.  Yes, I know it is bad for me, but I can eat it if I want to, so f*** off.

Let's take a peek at the breakfast cereal game and see what is revealed.

General Mills came up with a cereal called Super Sugar Crisps which was 44% sugar. Caring about the health of children so much the reduced the sugar, meaning the reduced the font size of the sugar.

Before

.

After

And then in a whole other level of deceit, they renamed it Honey Smacks.

Same product.  Different levels of deceit.  Click here for more gory details.

I think we all can agree that that amount of processed sugar is good for no one, let alone small children.

So, yes, you can eat this cereal if you want, but you'll be supporting these very unscrupulous people.

Cereal is an extreme example.  But you can find similar arguments across a whole variety of processed good. 

For an excellent breakdown about the lengths Big Food industry goes to get the public addicted to their salt-laden, sugar-laden, and fat-laden products, check out the excellent book Salt Sugar Fat.

I am addicted to sugar.  It is my Achilles heel.   But hey, I can eat it if I want to.

But, if I want to not support Big Food and their manipulative ways, then I will stay well clear.