Generally, smokers have a less healthy diet than non-smokers. This would explain why stopping smoking is often associated with weight gain.
- Quitting smoking often leads to weight gain.
- This could be linked to the poor eating habits of smokers.
- They tend to eat more fried foods and eat more sugar and salt, compared to non-smokers.
More than one in two smokers want to quit smoking, according to Tobacco Info Service. Fear of gaining weight leads some smokers to put off attempts to quit. However, scientists struggle to identify the specific links between smoking cessation and weight gain. At European Congress on Obesity, held in Venice from May 12 to 15, researchers from Loughborough University, United Kingdom, presented their hypothesis. According to their work, smokers tend to eat less healthily than non-smokers.
Tobacco and diet: how to analyze the effects of stopping?
To achieve these results, they analyzed data from more than 83,000 adults. These were collected between 2004 and 2022, during health assessment programs. The British researchers were interested in the smoking status of the participants (smoker or non-smoker), their age and their eating habits. “Body mass index was also measured during health assessments”they indicate.
This allowed them to observe that smokers have poorer eating habits than others. Being a smoker doubles the likelihood of skipping meals and spending more time without eating, compared to non-smokers. If they tend to snack less and perceive food less as a reward, analysis of the figures shows that smokers eat more fried products than non-smokers. They also tend to add more sugar to their dishes. For salt, being a smoker increases the probability of re-salting your dishes by 70%. “Additionally, the relationship between smoking and a higher likelihood of adding salt and sugar to meals was stronger among men than women, suggesting that male smokers may be particularly sensitive to less dietary habits. healthy”estimate the authors.
Quitting smoking: better support smokers in their weight management
According to them, this could explain why stopping smoking is generally followed by weight gain. “These findings reiterate the importance of including nutritional support and help with weight management in large-scale efforts to prevent and reduce smoking in the general UK population, says the lead author of this research, Arwa Alruwaili of Loughborough University, in a communicated. This could help promote more effective attempts to quit smoking and improve people’s eating habits as well as combat the many diseases linked to these two major health risks.”
In France, Tobacco Info Service provides several tips for people who want to quit but are worried about gaining weight: starting the day with breakfast, not skipping meals, eating vegetables and starchy foods, drinking regularly, and limiting alcohol. According to the organization, half of smokers gain a maximum of five kilos when they stop smoking.
