Nicotine Doesn’t Cause Addiction Sugar Does
By: Neb Nawur Atum-Re (Michael E. Noak Jr.)
As many are already aware, smoking is definitely hazardous to your health. Maybe this is an understatement. Many who do not smoke must be asking “why do people do it to themselves”? Even the non-smoker is at risk and often times are the undeserving prey of the incompetent and irresponsible smoker who is not aware of the damage being done to themselves nor the detrimental effects of their smoking being incurred on their non-smoking company.
Second hand smoke also known as Environmental Tobacco Smoke, (ETS) is a combination of smoke exhaled from the lungs and the smoke given off from the burning end of the cigarette. ETS is involuntarily inhaled by people who do not smoke. This transparent and very poisonous dust cloud produced by the smoker’s habit consequently stays in the air for hours even after the cigarette that was smoked has been put out. The inhalation of environmental tobacco smoke is responsible for causing cancer, as well as causes a host of other malignant diseases that lead to premature death in children and adults who do not smoke.
With all of this in mind, you must be asking yourself “why can I not quit”? Or “how come they won’t quit”? Well just remember that cigarettes have hundreds of poisons in them. Amongst the many poisons found in cigarettes are benzene, which is also found in soda and causes anemia, arsenic and ammonia which is used to make rat poison. Now we all know that a sane person would never get addicted to battery acid, so what makes cigarettes so different? Why the vague paradox? Many people who smoke appear to be sane and in control of most of their mental faculties. If second hand smoke is responsible for 3,400 cases of lung cancer and 46,000 cases of heart disease as well as deaths each year, then how many people are victimized from first hand smoke? You know as I grew more conscious and inherited a more keen awareness from the Nuwaupian doctrine, I have on many of occasions asked myself what would make a person join a gang knowing that from the time they join, they would be more inclined towards death than life. If you join the NFL, you are more likely to break a bone. If you join NASA, you may find yourself in a rocket ship one day. In both examples you live to see another day. What about the gang member? The only guarantee that you have is that you will most likely die because of your affiliation.
The cigarette smoker in many ways dwells in the same ignorance that the gang member dwells in. The only difference is that sugar is not the reason the gang member finds it hard to quit. Now back to my original premise. If cigarettes have hundreds of poisons in them, which they do, then what is it that cloaks the taste? It may sound crazy, but the answer is sugar. For years we have been told that nicotine in cigarettes is what gets you addicted. Contrary to this belief, the fact still remains that sugar is responsible for cigarette addiction. Cigarette companies have found out; burned sugar produces acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a chemical that interacts with neurotransmitters in the brain (messages sent throughout the body’s nervous system). An increase in acetaldehyde causes the smoker to crave for the most prominent alkaloid. In this particular case acetaldehyde will cause a person to get addicted to the alkaloid nicotine found in cigarettes. So as you can see, sugar causes the addiction.
You should be asking yourself “why put sugar in cigarettes”? Aside from the fact that cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals which taste horrible, the cigarette companies need new recruits. Think about it! If you made a product that sells like hotcakes but kills everyone that uses it, if you are immoral you have to find a way to replace all your dead customers. I know it sounds bad, but this is reality. Producers no longer care about their consumers. To consume really means to burn and this case they are talking about burning cigarettes, literally.
The largest single additive (addictive) used in cigarettes is sugar. Cigarette companies have gone as far as using plum juice, maple syrup and honey to make their products taste better. Marlboro uses cocoa and licorice in their cigarettes. By increasing sugar levels in cigarettes, they make the cigarettes even more poisonous. Sugar in cigarettes dilates the airways, allowing the smoke to get into a deeper passage in the lungs. Cigarettes not only cause cancer, but they also cause diabetes. If you have diabetes cigarette smoking can only make it worse. Many people claim that they smoke cigarettes when they are stressed as if this helps them out. Here are the facts of the matter. The worse thing a person with diabetes can do is be stressed out and smoke cigarettes. Stress raises the body’s level of cortisol and epinephrine and, via those hormones, the amount of glucose in the blood. Diabetics cannot make enough insulin to metabolize the raised sugar levels and because of this, sugar in the blood stays high, long after stress has gone. Like it or not the truth is sweet to the mouth and bitter to the stomach.
