Misled by a headline

"Exchanging Cigarettes For Bagels" reads the headline for Gina Kolata's latest Times health article. When I saw this, I assumed there was some new version of those programs where people trade in their guns for cash, in which people trying to quit smoking could bring in their cigarettes and get bagels in exchange. A neat-sounding if doomed program, I thought.

But turns out that's not it at all: The article merely points out that Americans have, as a nation, replaced smoking with overeating, and the bagels in question are among the foods overeaten these days. Kolata argues that we're better off obese and unhealthy than as still-more-unhealthy smokers. This may technically be true, although maybe not from a couturier's standpoint.