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Have the Good Taste to Quit Smoking
Ask any smoker why they just love their vice and one of the answers is bound to be taste. Cigarettes are just scrumptious. The response may sound insane to anyone with healthy lungs, but Big Tobacco has been manipulating smokers’ taste buds for decades, making cigarettes as delicious as possible. A new study, on the taste of cigarettes paired with different foods, suggests that wannabe quitters can win the taste wars with a diet that renders cigarettes as foul-tasting as they really are.
Duke University psychologist F. Joseph McClernon surveyed 209 smokers, 45% of whom reported some foods made their cigarettes taste bad. High on the list were vegetables, fruits, water, juice and dairy – ironically, all healthy foods that many smokers neglect. The foods that made smoking tastilicious? Slightly less virtuous items such as red meat, alcohol and caffeine – what some might consider the perfect pre-cigarette meal or smokers’ diet.
This is a welcome bit of research given the decades-long head start the tobacco companies have had in perfecting the taste of their product. Smokers who like the taste of their cigarettes are the least likely to quit. Big Tobacco’s biggest flavor success is undeniably menthol. Around 25% of the cigarettes sold in the U.S. are mentholated, and according to a 2004 paper from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, menthol makes cigarettes taste better, hides disease symptoms and might even make smokers believe they are healthier. In fact they are just so tasty that none of the common foods from the Duke survey made them taste any worse.
Menthol isn’t the only flavor in the pack. Tobacco companies also use enticing flavors like honey and caramel to amp up both taste and aroma, according to a 2003 paper from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. And in a bid to convert the youth of today to smokers of tomorrow, tobacco companies are producing cigarettes with seemingly innocuous flavors such as root beer, grape, citrus and chocolate.
Like menthol, these flavors might make smoke more palatable, cutting down on the harsh bite that can put off young smokers. Indeed, a pair of 2007 studies from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that new flavors such as citrus or mocha, with their prospect of pleasant taste, are better at enticing young people to start smoking. Thankfully, however, the flavored smokes didn’t score any higher on taste once the smokers lit up, and smokers didn’t take larger puffs or inhale any additional carbon monoxide than with regular cigarettes.
No matter the flavor, cigarettes have been engineered to be tasty and highly addictive. But the Duke study adds another dimension to the carrots and celery sticks smokers are encouraged to hold as a replacement while trying to kick the habit. Think of it this way – those veggies will give you something to do with your hands, and if you do slip up and have a cigarette, it might just taste bad. And that’s not a bad thing.
