Tobacco And Your Heart: Can Weight Gain After Quitting Be Harmful?

Published June 12, 2013 | By Lisa Nelson, RD

This week I am sharing with you a guest post provided by Lisa Redmond.

If we’re all brutally honest there are perhaps certain habits we all have that we know are bad for us, yet continue to carry on with them regardless. It may be drinking to excess frequently, indulging in foods that we recognize aren’t the most healthy dietary choices, or it could be smoking, whether it is done socially or regularly, every day. May 31^st saw in World No Tobacco Day and this may well have been the incentive for a lot of people to finally ditch nicotine and reduce their risk of a heart attack, stroke or cancer. What sometimes puts people off stopping is a worry that they will gain weight and not be able to successfully shed the pounds once they quit, but a new study published in the Journal of American Medicine has put that theory to bed once and for all.

Quit smoking for good

The study, carried out by JAMA was done intensively over a period of thirty years from 1981 to 2011 – with the results being published in March this year. It involved over three thousand participants. The results of the scientists’ work showed that people who had chosen to give up smoking and had successfully managed to keep off nicotine for four or more years reduced their risk of having either a heart attack or stroke by as much as 54%, significantly higher than those people who carried on smoking, but knowing the risks. Similarly, those smokers who had recently quit and had managed to keep away from cigarettes, cigars or pipes for up to four years also had a 53% decreased chance of suffering the same complaints compared to those who carried on.

These results were a surprise given that many of the participants of the study typically gained anything between 5-10lbs during the period they quit. Speaking of the results, Dr James Meig who is based at Harvard University and is one of the co-authors of the study commented that “We can now say without question that stopping smoking has a very positive effect on cardiovascular risk, even if they experience moderate weight gain”.

Weight gain, smoking and your heart health

Of course, wanting to cease smoking is the best possible choice you can make for your health and it’s clear from the results of the study that any moderate weight that creeps on as you might not be as bad for your health as you may think. It needn’t have to be that way though; you can stop smoking without increasing your weight, and keeping your stress levels low and your chances of staying off nicotine for good, high. It all centers on knowing the right kind of foods to eat to keep your body satisfied and your mind calm. However, you decide to stop smoking you may want to think about adopting a healthier diet and lifestyle to prevent the pounds creeping on in the first place. There are some very simple ways in which you can help yourself:

Omega 3 oils: By simply upping your intake of oily fish (salmon, sardines, halibut, mackerel e.t.c), by getting them from a vegetarian source such as flax seeds or simply taking a good quality supplement every day, you can dramatically improve your heart health, cholesterol and blood sugar after your quit smoking. Omega 3 oils naturally relax the artery walls, allowing the blood to flow more freely and increasing the nutrient uptake from all the other good foods you incorporate into your diet. They can also help to keep hypoglycemia at bay, meaning you don’t want to reach for sugary or fatty foods to replace the nicotine craving.

Choose good sources of lean protein: It can be helpful to try and cut out or cut down on the amount of processed animal proteins you have in your diet. One way of doing this is to start Meatless Mondays as outlined here, but also to think, when you do eat meat, the type to go for and how you cook it. Typically, try to stick to chicken, turkey and fish, steamed, grilled or poached and cooked with flavorsome herbs and spices to add taste and interest rather than lots of oils, fats and salt. Red meat is fine on occasion, so long as it is trimmed of all its excess fat, kept to a small portion and cooked in the way outlined above.

Accompany all your meals with good portions of fresh fruits and vegetables: These should form the backbone of your meals, colorful fruits and vegetables are attractive to look at on the plate and provide you with high levels of anti-oxidants, which are used by the body to fight off infections and to help repair itself after years of damage caused by smoking. You should try and aim to make sure your plate is at least half filled with salads or vegetables of different varieties at mealtimes in order to get the best benefits. They will fill you up for relatively few calories and keep you going for longer.