Do you want to stop smoking? This food reduces your craving for cigarettes | Well-being

Anyone looking to quit smoking and end a vicious cycle knows how difficult it is to overcome the period of abstinence, which usually lasts two to three weeks after stopping. That ‘fissure’ It manifests itself in feelings of discomfort, anguish and an intense desire to give in to the addiction again.

Since science began to study the topic in depth, there have been strategies for smokers to overcome this period without giving up. A study of the Fluminense Federal University (UFF)conducted in Brazil, revealed that the bitter chocolate it can be an alternative to help those who want to give up the addiction.

Yes, dark chocolate. Although it is considered in the popular imagination a clear enemy to health, the research results indicate that the daily consumption of a portion of 40 grams of dark chocolate (with 70% cocoa) contributed to the reduction of cravings in smokers who were undergoing treatment.

And most importantly: without affecting patients’ body measurements. The fear of gaining weight is precisely one of the reasons why people are reluctant to quit smoking.r. According to nutritionist Aline Silva de Aguiarspecialist in chemical dependency and responsible for the study, this occurs because smokers develop food selectivity due to the action of nicotinewhich speeds up metabolism and interferes with the taste buds of the tongue, reducing the taste sensation of food for the smoker.

“He tends to skip meals, not eat breakfast and always eat monotonously because he doesn’t feel the pleasure of the flavor. Associated with this, the Body Mass Index (BMI) of those who smoke tends to be lower. Generally, he is a thinner person. So, when you stop smoking, the person starts to compensate for the lack of cigarettes by eating more palatable foods, generally sweet, fatty and ultra-processed”, explains.

“Without nicotine, the metabolism stops being accelerated and returns to normal. Therefore, the person may gain a little weight”, says Aguiar, who is also a professor at Department of Nutrition and Dietetics of the Faculty of Nutrition at UFF. She highlights that “the weight gain when quitting smoking is negligible compared to the benefits of quitting smoking”.

Study details

The analysis was conducted by nutritionists from UFF Translational Nutrition Research Group, coordinated by Aguiar. For a month, they carried out a clinical intervention study with 47 smokers with chronic comorbidities (among them, diabetes and hypertension) that were served in the Comprehensive Assistance Unit for Smokers, of the Interdisciplinary Center for Studies and Research in Nephrologyin the city of Juiz de Fora (MG).

The nutritionist highlighted that most services aimed at smoking cessation do not have nutritionists on staff – that is why she decided to participate in an outpatient clinic within the Unified Health System (SUS) to be able to evaluate the impact of food (in this case, chocolate) as part of the intervention to stop smoking.

But after all, how does dark chocolate help?

According to the nutritionist, cocoa has a large amount of compounds that impact cognitive processes and mood changes, in addition to offering antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Cocoa consumption contributes to reducing stress, helping to minimize symptoms associated with anxiety and mood changes. The choice of dark chocolate (70%) was precisely due to its higher concentration of cocoa, which translates into more beneficial effects.