Is the obesity grant hurting the no-smoking campaign?

I was reading an article in the New York Times recently about how tobacco funds are being taken to fight childhood obesity. It's sad that we have to choose between discouraging smoking and encouraging healthy activities - frankly, they probably should go hand in hand. Healthy living is not just eating right and exercising - it's also not drinking to excess, not smoking and not doing drugs. I'm attaching the link to the article so you can read it if you're interested. But here's the opening paragraph in case, like me, you're really just a headline skimmer!

"When the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation decided in 1991 to take on Joe Camel, it became the nation’s largest private funding source for fighting smoking. The foundation spent $700 million to help knock the cartoon character out of advertisements, finance research and advocacy for higher cigarette taxes and smoke-free air laws and, ultimately, to aid in reducing the nation’s smoking rate almost by half.

But a few years ago, the Johnson foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., added another target to its mission, pledging to spend $500 million in five years to battle childhood obesity. As the antiobesity financing rose to $58 million last year, a new compilation from the foundation shows, the organization’s antismoking grants fell to $4 million."

Here's the link if you'd like to read more! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/health/policy/28obesity.html?_r=1&hp

Go take a hike!