If you care about your health and good looks smoking is something you definitely want to change. In addition to health problems, smoking has a devastating effect on your skin. Next to sun exposure smoking is the most damaging thing you can do to your skin (see Factors of Skin Aging). We already gave a lot of information on how smoking damages your skin and some very good tips on how to stop smoking here. In this article we are going to look at foods that may help you dampen your cravings for the addictive nicotine.
Anti-smoking food: Oats
You may find it interesting that boiled oats have been used in India’s Ayurvedic system to treat opium addiction. It was noticed that recovering opium addicts often lost interest in cigarettes as well. This came to attention of Scottish scientists who ran an experiment where smokers were divided into two groups. One group was given an extract of fresh oats and others were given a placebo. As soon as after one month oat-eaters craved for cigarettes much less and smoked only one-third as much cigarettes as they had before the experiment. In fact some of them stopped smoking entirely, while some others cut back by 50 percent and only one of them continued smoking as usual. Further, craving suppression was effective for two months after the smokers stopped eating the oats.
High-alkaline Foods
It was noticed that people with more alkaline bodies had easier time staying away from cigarettes. Further observations showed that people with high body acidity smoked more than those with alkaline body chemistry.
Some foods help to maintain high levels of addictive nicotine in the body, lessening the need for continuous nicotine intake. Here are the examples of foods that will increase your body’s alkalinity, helping you smoke less: spinach, figs, almonds, raisins, apples, apricots, avocados and dried lima beans.
On the other hand, there are foods that tend to flush away nicotine, increasing your cravings for cigarettes. These are acid-promoting foods and beverages, such as colas, alcohol, red meats, chicken, cheese, plums, coffee, cranberries, liver and organ meats. Avoiding these foods will make it easier for you to quit smoking.