Healthy Food Helps to Quit Smoking




Sometimes smokers notice that certain food influences on the taste of cigarettes: some products improve the taste of cigarettes, the others make a smoker want to give up because of bad aftertaste with the smoke. Duke University psychologist F Joseph McClernon has decided this was a good basis for a new research and started his studies.

The idea is that smoking is about various senses: as a rule a smoker enjoys inhaling warm air with smoke, feels fine about the tobacco flavor, and feels relaxed with the cigarette in his or her hand. If taste buds are “tuned” in the same direction with nicotine, smoking becomes more pleasurable. It is common to see a person who has a cigarette while enjoying a cup of coffee, however there are no smokers who decide to have a milk shake or a glass of orange juice in this situation.

Dr. McClernon kept hearing from old-time smokers about the influence of food on the taste of cigarettes and came up with the idea if he singled out a group of products that make the process of smoking unpleasant, he could come up with a quit-smoking diet.

Only old-time smokers which had the habit for more than 20 years were considered in the research. Each of them used to smoke a pack a day or more. The scientists wanted to compare race and sex differences as well, this is why among 209 participants half were women, two-thirds were white, one forth were Afro-American, and almost all of them were high-school or college graduates.

All of the participants were asked to make a list of foods which improved or worsened cigarette taste. It is interesting that not all of them had connection between food and smoking: only 70% admitted certain products made cigarettes taste better. They were meat, caffeinated and alcoholic beverages.

Even fewer people have experienced worsened taste: 45% participants said they would prefer not to smoke while or after eating fruits, vegetables and dairy products or drinking water, juices or milk.

The situation was a little different with menthol-cigarette smokers. Due to added flavor to the tobacco the participants did not worry about food because menthol overcame it anyway.

To those who decide to quit smoking, Dr. McClernon recommends to eat carrots and celery sticks and drink a lot of water. First of all this will make the hands and mouth of the smoker busy when he craves for cigarettes and secondly they ruin the cigarette flavor which makes people stay away from the habit at least while the vegetable flavor is strong in the mouth.

The researchers were surprised that the majority (90%) of Afro-American participants were menthol-cigarette smokers. Some scientists say they were probably targeted to do so by TV commercials. Menthol cigarettes are not as good, one of the researchers says, “This study suggests that menthol lessens the effect of taste deadening or enhancing. And you are more likely to be addicted if you are not affected by variations in taste and pleasure.”

At the present moment the scientists have not figured out yet why certain products influence of cigarette flavor, but they plan to keep working on the research deeper and find out. McClernon says, “We are going to do research to try to understand why drinking water and eating fruits and vegetables worsens the taste of cigarettes. We don’t have a lot of super good ideas about that right now. But if we understood the mechanisms, we could maybe use them to develop new treatments.”

Even though the study is not complete, it definitely will not hurt and harm anybody to eat more vegetables and fruit and substitute morning coffee to a glass of milk.

Tom Graham

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Posted on June 7, 2009 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, How to Quit Smoking, Smoking and Diet, Stop Smoking News

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