A recent US study concluded that former smokers with poor nicotine withdrawal tend to consume more calories. However, the food to which these people willingly turn is none other than junk food, famous for its high fat and sugar content.
In 2016, an Australian study asked the following question:is junk food bad for intelligence? By conducting an experiment on mice, the researchers noted consequent changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiota of different specimens. However, rodents who became addicted to junk food performed less well on tests of memory and cognitive flexibility.
Junk food is at the heart of other work, this time published in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence August 1, 2021. Conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Medical School (USA), this study shows that the opioid system causes former smokers to tend to consume fatty and sugary foods , in order to fill the void.
Very widely distributed in the central nervous system as well as in several peripheral tissues, opioid peptides and opioid receptors – of the opioid system – play an important role in addiction, but also in the regulation of appetite. According to study researchers, people who quit smoking have their opioid system guide them to junk food, and therefore potentially towards weight gain.
Doctors have tried to understand the mechanisms at work upon quitting smoking by examining groups of smokers and non-smokers aged 19 to 75. The aim was to verify whether or not acute nicotine withdrawal increased the consumption of junk food. It was also about understanding how the anti-stress receptors of the opioid system act. . According to the results, patients in nicotine withdrawal consume more calories than others.
Foods high in sugar, fat (and salt) turn out to help these people by providing a response to distress caused by quitting smoking. Finally, this research may be of some importance, because it would be a question of providing the means to put in place better support for people wishing to quit smoking without risking significant weight gain . It must be said that among smokers, this fear is very present and often overcomes any motivation to quit.
