Smoking is definitely harmful. Doctors keep encouraging smokers to forget about the cigarette and remember sports. One of the reasons why they encourage starting working out is because many people complain about gaining weight after quitting smoking. Some say that when you stop smoking, taste receptors are restored, food becomes tastier and obviously you want to eat more. Others try to remember logics and say that smoking habit has to be replaced with another hand-to-mouth process, in this case – eating.
According to statistics, smokers weigh less then those having healthy lifestyle. Nicotine is not only addictive but it also sends to your brain false signals about getting full. It has effects on receptors of central nervous system, which regulates personal gastronomic behavior.
A group of biologists examined the effects of nicotine to mice and they found out that loss of appetite is not related to nicotine addition. They compared two substances – nicotine and its analogue cytisine (which does not cause addiction). The results show that both agents actually suppress appetite. If mice also got mecamylamine injection which blocked effects of nicotine, appetite was coming back. Biologists have discovered that nicotine affects are certain part of brain which is responsible for basic body functions such as breathing, digestion and endocrine system. This part of brain has certain receptors which regulates production of substances responsible for appetite. Nicotine stimulate production of these substances and your body starts believing that it has received enough of nutrients even if you didn’t eat much.