Back when I was a JW I saw many people DF'd because of smoking. It was probably the second most common reason aside from fornication and adultrey. I can't tell you how many brothers and sisters I knew in my Cong. that were extremely overweight and had chronic health problems because of it.
As a former EMT I spent alot of time going on calls to nursing homes and retirement centers. Quite often I would see people in their late seventies and even eighties outside grabbing a smoke. Granted they were not exactly pictures of health but they were still alive. However what you would rarely see would be people in that age group that were obese. They just didn't live that long.
I have asked many JW's, two of them elders, how smoking can be considered a defilement of the flesh but not obesity. Both are very dangerous but it appeared to me that obesity tends to kill you much sooner on average then smoking. I never got a decent, clear, logical or even common sense answer from them. Instead I would be asked if I was questioning the organization. It only took a few times being asked if I was questioning the organization vs having my question aswered to realize that I was hitting a delicate nerve.
I have heard that more recentley, long after I had left them, that it was being addressed but I am not seeing any changes in the average weight of JW's. They come into the clinic I lease space from almost every day. The ones that were fat then are still fat now, at least the ones that are still alive I might add.
I would be curious to hear from anyone in the healthcare profession that has made this same analogy and is every bit confused as I was.