Want to Quit Smoking? Eat Your Veggies (and your Fruits)!

New research out of the University of Buffalo will knock the cigarettes right out of your mouth!

A new study revealed that eating more fruits and vegetables will not only help you quit smoking, it will help you stay tobacco-free longer. The research, "A Longitudinal Evaluation of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Cigarette Smoking" was authored by Jeffrey P. Haibach, M.P.H., Gregory G. Homish, Ph.D., & Gary A. Giovino, Ph.D., M.S. and published in The Oxford Journal of Nicotine and Tobacco Research. (Click here to view the original research. [Subscription required, sorry])

How it was done:
The authors surveyed 1,000 smokers over the age of 25 from all around the country using random-digit dialing telephone interviews. They followed up with the respondents 14 months later and asked about their smoking (and eating) habits during the previous month.
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The Results:
The observational study found that smokers who ate the most fruits and vegetables were three times more likely to be tobacco-free for at least 30 days, after 14 months, than those who consumed the lowest amounts of fruits and vegetables. These results even held true after adjusting to take into account race/ethnicity, education, household income, health orientation, gender, and age.

In addition, the smokers who ate the most fruits and vegetables, when they were smoking, smoked fewer cigarettes per day, began smoking later in the day, and scored lower on a nicotine dependence test than those who ate lower amounts of fruits and vegetables.

"Carrot Sticks" Photo by Daizi Zheng from quitsmokingcounter.com 

Researchers have several ideas why fruits and veggies help deter smoking.

• Fruits and vegetables don't enhance the flavor of tobacco
• Other foods (unhealthier foods) like alcohol, meats, and caffeinated beverages are known to compliment the flavor of tobacco. 
• "Foods like fruit and vegetables may actually worsen the taste of cigarettes,"  says Jeffrey P. Haibach, MPH, first author on the paper and graduate research assistant in the UB Department of Community Health and Health Behavior. 
• The high fiber content of fruits and vegetables help people feel fuller.
• "It is also possible that fruits and vegetables give people more of a feeling of satiety or fullness so that they feel less of a need to smoke, since smokers sometimes confuse hunger with an urge to smoke." -- Jeffrey P. Haibach
• "It's possible that an improved diet could be an important item to add to the list of measures to help smokers quit. We certainly need to continue efforts to encourage people to quit and help them succeed, including proven approaches like quitlines, policies such as tobacco tax increases and smoke-free laws, and effective media campaigns." -- Jeffrey P. Haibach