Week 9: Tobacco and Alcohol

This week we dove into Chapter 7 which talks all about tobacco and alcohol use; both in which I am very fond of. While I do not smoke cigarettes, both my parents have been smokers forever, and both drink. My father in particular, I considered an alcoholic, for his drinking habits were poor in nature, and increasingly getting worse as of late. Thankfully, a few months ago, a decision had to be made, and it’s been 4 months since he’s had a drink, and I feel like there’s a new person at home.

            While I don’t see emotional and physical affects of smoking, I know first hand that alcoholism can and has truly changed the behavior of those around you. Beyond this, long and short-term health conditions can affect the individual in a multitude of ways. Liver conditions, alcohol poisoning and weight gain- short term consisting, but not limited to vomiting, “blacking out” and poor decision-making.

What the chapter talks about, and what is often overlooked, is the metabolizing factors of alcohol and how that varies among consumers. Naturally, BAC is higher in individuals with more body fat, and women, are more likely to have more body fat than that of a man- which is why there is so much chatter about women not being able to hold their liquor.

What can change this is the amount of liquor people are consuming, against how often they consume it. There is a tolerance being built up the more often the individuals drink; this development considered to be both physical and psychological. While there are psychological developments in tolerance levels, there are also effects on ones mental that we often don’t consider.

The chapter highlights that both of these things are social habits, and that this often can increase our intake of said products- delving into many negative aspects of drinking and smoking, and what we all should consider when making the decision to do either of these things. If we are drinkers or smokers, we at least need to be mindful of our consumer habits, and be aware of it’s negative effects. We are become more prone to cancer, and problems with our liver, when we make the decision to consume these products.

            Since my health journey, I have made an effort to cut back on my alcohol intake. I’ve always been a drinker, but not a heavy one, nor have I ever found myself depending on it at any moment. I love beer and mixed drinks, and trying new ones whenever I go out with friends, but now I am limiting my consumption, and I find that I don’t order drinks as frequently as before.

           In other news, I’m still moving down on the weight scale and I feel great. My boyfriend and me took on a no carb diet for spring break, and were really hard on one another to make it through. We had a love hate relationship with it, but took a way some good juicing recipes and weight loss!