Most people, including those who light up regularly, are well aware of the dangers of breathing in cigarette smoke with respect to the health of the lungs. However, this is often not enough motivation to convince someone to quit. Well, here’s another take on the whole smoking cessation issue that’s been front and center in recent health news: quitting smoking will not only net some short-term gain in the form of less inhaled toxins, but will also usher in some pretty impressive long-term gains.
Researchers in Thailandrecently noted that the differences in health behaviors among ex-smokers at varying durations of cessation have not been investigated. So they devised a study to examine the relationship between these two things.
The research team first collected data on dietary intake, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and smoking behavior from subjects across a broad spectrum of ages (15-98 years). Trends between health behaviors among regular smokers, ex-smokers with different durations of smoking (less than one year, one-10 years, and greater than 10 years), and those who had never smoked were tested.
The researchers found that the prevalence of regular smoking, ex-smoking, and never smoking were 22%, 12%, and 66%, respectively. Now here’s where some interesting data started to crop up. Those who had quit smoking for 10 years or more consumed more fruit, beans and meats, dairy and soy milk, whole-grain products, and nutritional supplements. In general, they also had a much better grip
on overeating habits, too. Average daily alcohol consumption was lowest among ex-smokers as well.
The message here is that greater duration of smoking cessation correlated with better health behaviors. Or, in other words, if you quit smoking and you stay away from cigarettes, it’s likely you’ll fall into a pattern of approaching everything else in your life in a healthier way — especially when it comes to diet. Smokers, it seems, perhaps realizing they are already indulging in one unhealthy behavior, take other aspects of their health less seriously. They are more likely to eat nutritionally-poor food. Stopping smoking for
a longer period, along with reducing the risk for lung cancer, seems to interrupt other unhealthy behaviors.
To find out more about health tips around smoking cessation, read the article If You’re Still Smoking, These Facts Might Shock You.