In what is clearly the greatest fictional parenthetical phrase of all time, Nabakov’s Lolita narrator describes the untimely death of his mother (picnic, lightning). In our non-fiction world, a more apt pair of words to appear in those parentheses is probably (smoke, croak).
Smoking continues its unabated streak of being just about the worst thing you can do for your health. A new study out of Harvard finds that smoking and high blood pressure each accounts for about one in five deaths.
Here is the researchers’ list of several other usual suspects that can lead to premature death. There was a time in my life where this list wouldn’t have been so different from the one I’d include on an Evite to one of my parties.
Smoking
Physical inactivity
High salt intake
Low intake of fruits and vegetables
High blood sugar levels
High “bad” cholesterol
Overweight or obesity
High intake of trans fat
High intake of salt
Low intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids
Low intake of omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish)
Alcohol intake
