[hellbannedguy]

And many were smokers.

[ginko]

Ooh, that's an interesting correlation. The number of smokers dropped a lot since the 80s, essentially right when the obesity epidemic started:

https://ourworldindata.org/smoking#the-rise-and-fall-of-smok...

Nicotine is known to suppress hunger

[giantg2]

It's also possible that nicotine triggers epigenetic changes that affect the metabolisms of future generations.