Nicotine on the move

Just a quick post about moving, I was reminded by Tom Naughton's current post on his move.

We used a national company for the move, the driver plus three local helpers loaded the truck in Berkshire, he drove it up and two guys helped him unload at the Glasgow end.

All were thin as rakes. Obviously exercise makes you thin. Duh. These guys were exercising alright. Getting as many books as we own up the stairs, for storage in the bedroom cupboard, was no minor feat. This was almost certainly done on a diet of carbs and alcohol (not on the job of course, but one chap's comment was that he wouldn't want to attempt our Glasgow stairs on a Saturday night, crashing on the couch would be needed!).

At least that was how it seems on the surface. But in reality there is another factor involved. It brought home to me Gary Taubes' comment about nicotine releasing free fatty acids from adipocytes to allow humans access to the energy stored in their fat cells. Nicotine is an archetypal slimming drug.

Every 60 minutes there was an obligatory "fag break" as it was described. My impression was that they were automatically maintaining a fixed level of nicotine in their blood. Whether this was a fluke and we just happened to have six nicotine addicts in our crew, or whether people in hard manual labour accidentally discover that smoking makes the job a darn sight easier is open to speculation. But a few free fatty acids, irrespective of your insulin levels, might come in useful when you have to shift heavy stuff for hours at a time.

I doubt I'd have noticed anything without Gary Taubes giving the pointer.

Peter