Can diet help you quit smoking without gaining weight?
Nicotine is a parasympathomimetic alkaloid made in the roots and deposited in various parts of some Solanaceae plants. The best known, of course, is tobacco, Nicotiana. Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, tomatillos and both sweet and hot peppers are other plants that contain small amounts of nicotine.
The main source of nicotine for the human body is smoking tobacco leaves. People smoke because some nerve cells in the brain receive pleasant feelings from nicotine, so to quit smoking may be really hard. Most of the smokers consider only the advantage of smoking – a way to cope with stressful situations and feel better, but the truth is that after nicotine goes into the lungs, it enters the bloodstream and affects almost every piece of the body, including the brain, heart, blood vessels and hormones. In a negative way. For some smokers, smoking ends with cancer and death.
Can smoking influence body weight?
Some people begin to smoke because smoking tobacco was linked to the weight loss. A St. Louis University study examining elderly nursing home patients found that smokers lost weight faster than non-smokers. This phenomenon seems to occur because smoking can increase heart rate causing the body to burn calories faster and increase the metabolism rate. Cigarettes can also cause weight loss because of their appetite-suppressing qualities. Smokers smoke instead of eating.
It might be tempting for some people to start smoking to lose weight, but it doesn’t really worth. The effect is temporary. Once you quit smoking, you will put back the lost pounds. And the smoking habit is expensive, it damages your health and can affect your relations with your family in various, sometimes unimaginable ways. And it is REALLY HARD to quit smoking…
Can diet help you quit smoking without gaining weight?
If you are a non-smoker, you are lucky. You are healthier and stronger. If you are a smoker, you should try to quit this habit, to get closer to the state of total health.
What you eat can help you to resist to the temptation of smoking. There are certain types of foods and liquids that can help you quit smoking without gaining weight. Some of these are:
- Water – If you drink water, you can help yourself better curb your nicotine cravings.
- Fruits – The action of picking up and nibbling on the piece of fruit may help to replace the act of picking up and smoking a cigarette.
- Fresh vegetables – They will help you replace the habit of smoking by using your hands to lift them to your mouth to eat. Vegetables like: eggplant, green tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes, contain a very small amount of nicotine, which can help you fight your nicotine cravings.
- Candy – When you feel like lighting up a cigarette, replace this action with unwrapping and eating a hard candy because it is something that simulates the oral aspect of smoking. Anyway, the accent should be stressed on fruits and vegetables, because sweets will certainly make you gain weight.
- Vitamin complex – Taking a vitamin complex containing E, A, C, B5 vitamin is really helpful, because:
- Vitamins E acts as a protective antioxidant to fight free radicals that increase in the body from smoking.
- Vitamin C strengthens immunity and encourages the absorption of vitamin E.
- Vitamin A protects you from lung damage that leads to cancer
- Vitamin B-5 or the “anti-stress” vitamin helps manufacture stress-related hormones.