Research Finds Quitting Smoking Increases Diabetes Risk - How to Eat Properly Again

A study by U.S. researchers found that people who stop smoking have a 70 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the first six years without cigarettes as compared to people who never smoked. The risks were highest in the first three years, and returned to normal after 10 years.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal, looked at almost 11,000 middle-aged adults who did not yet have diabetes from 1987 to 1989. The patients were followed for up to 17 years and data about diabetes status, glucose levels, weight and more were collected at regular intervals.

The researchers said they suspected the increased diabetes risk comes from extra weight gain common in people who quit.[Reuters]

Diabetes is reaching epidemic levels, with an estimated 180 million people suffering from it around the world. [Has anybody taken a serious look at the role of carbonated drinks and junk food?]

OK, my suspicion is that a lot of the weight gain experienced by smokers quitting is due to a lack of understanding as to what is going on in the body. When nicotine hits the body it creates a number of reactions. The most common is the release of dopamine and the lighting up of our pleasure circuits, but nicotine also releases adrenaline and another chain of chemicals that are designed to prepare the body to fight or flee. This pathway prepares the body and mind to be in a state of red alert. The digestive system shuts down and stored energy from our sugar and fat reserves is released in preparation for action.

By smoking cigarettes the smoker has been trained to bypass natural feelings of hunger as well as being 'fed' at the same time due to the release of energy reserves. All of this happens in about 10 seconds! In contrast to this, having a proper meal will also release dopamine and distribute energy to the body but this now takes about 10 to 20 minutes to achieve. That postprandial feeling of well-being is your reward for keeping the body alive. But the smoker has been used to an immediate rush and this natural system feels like the slow train to nowhere.

The lesson here is to re-learn how to eat normally. Expecting an immediate high means potentially eating for the whole 20 minutes until you can feel the effect. This is now a recipe for over-eating and hence weight gain unless accompanied by an equivalent increase in metabolic rate through exercise. Nicotine has been quite literally feeding your body but deluding you into thinking you don't have to feed yourself. It has also artificially increased your metabolic rate by an inappropriate fight or flight response when it was totally unnecessary. Now that you no longer need to panic over nothing you don't need to call on those energy reserves and so, yet again, you may experience some weight gain as the energy input now exceeds your energy output.

It is also entirely possible that as a former smoker your addictive personality has merely transferred the addiction from nicotine to food. This is possibly the main reason for chronic weight gain. However, a small increase in weight after quitting smoking is normal and merely means returning to a more natural eating pattern and more real physical exercise. Our current society seems at times to be designed around making us all addicts of something, be it nicotine, pharmaceuticals, carbonated drinks, computer games, whatever. Having gained freedom from one addiction should give you an insight into addictive behaviour and start to ring huge alarm bells - if you can spot it.

Regards eating, avoid carbonated drinks as they are poison - drink natural fruit juices or water instead. I know, water is dull so I often squeeze half a lemon to add some natural taste. I personally avoid chewing gum as I find it totally pointless - all it does is delude the body into thinking you are eating thereby releasing gastric juices but with nothing to feed on except your saliva. I'm not suggesting going on a diet but if you find yourself reaching for food as a replacement for smoking then make sure that extra food has a minimum number of calories. You may also find yourself eating more often but with smaller portions. This is perfectly natural - it was replacing lunch with a couple of cigarettes that was unnatural. The whole aim is to avoid big spikes in sugar intake whilst maintaining a constant and healthy supply of nutrients. Your body knows perfectly well how to distribute what you eat - just don't overload the system.