Lucky.
It took me the full first phase of South Beach for my sugar withdrawal symptoms to completely subside.

A friend of mine did a gut cleansing diet where he only consumed special bars and shakes, he didn't have any sugar withdrawal. But he did taste how sugary every snack and soft drink was, loudly proclaiming he'd never drink soda ever again... next day after we went to Burger King and drank a whole bunch of import soft drinks afterwards :lol:

I can do without sugars just fine.

Getting off booze? 2 days and it's not even on my radar. A week, and I'm feeling better than ever. Cigarettes? Easy, if I'm not drinking.

But that's no fun.

Just for clarity, the first two weeks of South Beach restricts not just sugar in the form of say candy or soft drinks, but also fruit, fruit juice, bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice...among other things.

I gained a whole new respect for folks trying to kick a nicotine habit after that first week, because...oooh boy, was that rough.

FWIW, being wiki and all, here's the alcohol consumption per country rank:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ion_per_capita

Ofc Russia is top 5 and many Slavic nations are in the top 20 :lol:

Japan much lower than what I had expected.

Guess it depends on how much you consume over time. When you're a soda hog like I used to be, giving up the stuff is just as hard as giving up smoking or booze. It took me a while to finally take matters into my own hands and quit the habit. The scary thing is I made the same choice 4 years ago and after a while I fell off the wagon and went right back into that habit. I just hope I can stick to my guns this time.

Maybe there will come a day similar rules are put into place with carbonated beverages.

I am always shocked when I see someone younger than 30 years old smoking. It's fricken 2017, why did you even start smoking. I can at least understand when I see a middle aged person smoking. But are the youth of today that stupid?

Teenagers will always smoke. Teenagers are rebellious and will purposely do things people tell them not to. I am surprised though that by the time they get into their early 20's they don't give it up.

It's the same reason teens have more group or casual sex these days than any prior generation, they copy the things they see in online porn and they think that's what everyone does on a daily basis. Same reason so many girls agree to lesbian activities even if they're straight.

It's been like that for decades, sadly. Even in this day an age where tobacco is heavily demonized by the media, kids find it cool to consume those products, especially when they see older siblings/cousins/friends partaking in it.

Citation needed.

Once again, 'Cubed just blows my mind.

Yay, there is officially a second smoker on the Technodrome.

...how do you know so much about the sexual habits of teenagers?

Never ask a question you really don't want to hear the answer to.

I mean, considering he wrote a suggestive Pokémon fanfic it kinda makes you wonder...

He must be smoking the good stuff given how he passes off his delusions as facts. :-P

Honestly, I feel the same way. That's really my biggest reason for not smoking. "It's 2017." Even when weed becomes legal (something I support entirely, there's a massive difference between that and tobacco), I wouldn't even smoke that. Maybe I'd eat it or do vapor form, but still, I wouldn't smoke it.

What does that even mean?

"Suggestive" lol