Nicotine, when taken, increases the levels of the pleasure sensations in the body. It induces the brain chemicals serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Nicotine is a stimulant to the nervous system. It increases adreneline, raises blood pressure and heart rate. It also increases the body’s overall metabolic rate, body temperature, the degree of tension in muscles, and effects the levels of certain hormones.

It is quite a contra-indicator if you smoke a cigarette and then walk into your massage session. Forget the hypocrisy of telling your body you’re going to relax then jacking it up with a stimulant like nicotine, just imagine what the message is that is going on inside of you?

These chemical sensations in the brain and body are quite pleasurable when they are coupled with other chemical reactions that cause feelings of agitation, irritability and perceived negative stress. The paradox created is the main ingredient in the psychological addiction.

The physical addiction comes directly from the nicotine. The body tolerates nicotine rapidly and the dose needed to insure the pleasurable effects must increase or withdrawal will begin. Chemicals in cigarettes create toxic damage to organs, capillaries, arteries, the brain, muscles and bones, most of which is reversible when cigarette smoking is stopped. Physical dependency is easier to withdraw from than is the psychological.

The right foods contain minerals, vitamins, digestive enzymes and amino acids that restore and promote health. Other foods contain chemicals that create the physical and psychological conditions needed to keep a strong grasp on an addicted smoker.

Eating the right foods will assist with withdrawal from the physical addiction by clearing the blood of toxins, the arteries of plaque, reducing high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels increasing the flow of blood to the brain so thinking becomes more positive than negative.

Eating the right foods will assist with psychological withdrawal, fostering a change in routines that trigger the mental desire for a cigarette by preparing and eating different foods in different settings.

So, what are the right foods?

Fresh fruits and vegetables of all kinds eaten raw or slightly steamed. Salmon, Cod, Almonds, Cashews, Pecans, Filberts, NOT PEANUTS for protein. Grains such as millet, brown rice, amaranth, quinoa or buckwheat. Oat bran, oatmeal, flax meal, flax cereal. Use Stevia as sweetener. Drink soy, almond, oat and/or rice milk.

Don’t eat junk food at all. The sugar, salt, caffeine and other chemicals reactions from eating junk set up your craving for a cigarette by agitating your nervous system. Junk includes artificial sweeteners like SweetnLow, Equal, aspartame, sorbitol, and Nutrasweet, and Splenda (yes, Splenda, the ‘healthy’ alternative that is replacing sugar in sodas, baked good, candy bars, ice cream, packaged foods, is also junk). Avoid bacon, sausage, lunchmeat, hotdogs, wheat pastas and breads, cookies, cakes, pies, aged cheese, mushrooms, fermented foods.

Cut back on your caffeine intake. Replace coffee with black tea in the morning. Get a strong flavored black tea, like Earl Grey and let it steep. The flavor is satisfying and the caffeine is strong enough to get you going and keep a withdrawal headache away. A cup of tea does not have as much caffeine as does a cup of coffee. For the first week drink black tea and water only.

Increase water intake to 2 quarts a day. Herb teas, fruit and vegetable juices count towards the water intake. Black tea and coffee do not. This increase is to flush the toxins out of your body. Be prepared to visit the bathroom often for a while.

Because most smokers are dehydrated, it will take several weeks, even months to rehydrate. Woman should be 50-60% hydrated, men 60-70% hydrated. Increase your hydration level over time by converting your total body weight into ounces and dividing that by 2 = the amount of water you need to consume each day. That number does not include the teas, fruit and vegetable juices allowed when you first quit nicotine.

Take vitamins and minerals in the quantities listed:

  • Vit. C 1,000 –2,000 mg./day. 1000 mg in AM, 500 mg.@ lunchtime, 500 mg. @ dinner in a buffered form to avoid an acid stomach.
  • Vit. A 5,000- 10,000 IU/ day in AM
  • Vit. E 400 IU/day in AM
  • Beta-carotene 15,000 – 25,000 IU/ day in AM
  • Selenium 200 mcg/day in AM
  • Zinc 15-30 mg/ day in AM
  • Sodium or Potassium bicarbonate tablets. 1 each time a craving begins, up to 6 daily.
  • Vit. B Complex plus extra Vit B 12, and Folic Acid

Use Herbal Supplements:

  • Cayenne pepper on food to clear respiratory tract
  • Red clover and burdock root to cleanse blood
  • Dandelion and milk thistle to protect and clear the liver
  • Ginger used as a tea or fresh in food will soothe the stomach and increase perspiration to get rid of toxins.
  • Catnip, hops, skullcap or valerian root will help soothe nerves. Not recommended for anyone who is already taking an anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication.
  • Slippery elm tablets or tea for lung congestion or cough.

Beginning week 2 make the Healing Broth Recipe included in this package. Physically, it will provide minerals and vitamins, as well as an additional beverage to replace coffee and black tea. The broth will cleanse the body, support the digestive tract, and give needed energy.On the psychological level, shopping for the vegetables and preparation creates a switch in the brain to a new routine. Eat and drink this broth for 6 weeks.

Use a FOOD COMBINING CHART to make decisions about what food to eat with what. Basic Food combining means that your never put starches with protein (ie. no meat and potatoes, no cold cut sandwiches), never combine fuits and vegetables with the exception being tomatoes and avacados, never eat any fruits combined (ie. fruit salad). Never combine melon of any kind with another melon or other food (so toss that melon wedge that arrives on the side of the plate with your favorite entree). Each food has its place in your digestive system. But most of the American diet is not on the list of healthy eating.

Food Combining the right way will clear the body and mind very quickly without causing a healing crisis. It is a good way to eat all the time, and a really good way to eat when detoxifying from cigarettes. Cook and eat as much of the foods as you want. Eating the right foods will not add weight to the body when eaten in the right combinations.

Sample Detoxification Plan

Detox Plan Routine Week One

Upon Rising: Two glasses of water. One glass with lemon juice squeezed into it. Take vitamins and minerals.

Breakfast: One piece of fruit. Chew well and wait 15 to 30 minutes before having a bowl of cereal or whole grains. Use stevia to sweeten, if desired. Use nut, rice, oat or soy milk. Black tea.

Lunch: A really big bowl of steamed vegetables with butter, or tamari sauce or herb dressing. Steamed, broiled or baked fish or chicken. Take supplements. Take a walk. Black tea or V8 or fruit juice.

Dinner: Same as lunch, without fish or chicken or Black tea.

Before Bed: Herbal tea such as chamomile, valerian root, peppermint, pau d’arco or blends.

Information for “Smoking, Quitting Smoking, and What’s Food Got To Do With It?” was compiled from the work of Dr. Elson M. Haas, M.D., “The Detox Diet”, Phyllis Balch, CNC and James Balch, M.D. “Prescription for Nutritional Healing”, and other sources. For more in-depth consultation on detoxifying your body please contact:

Janis C. Sommers, LMT, CT, CVD

Twenty-First Century Health, LLC

POB 5153, Gulfport, FL 33737

(727) 418 –8972