Don't Go Up In Smoke!

Feel Great!
Don't Go Up in Smoke!
If you don't smoke, give yourself a big pat on the back! Cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in the United States today, so whether you've never smoked or you've quit successfully, keeping tobacco out of your life is a huge boost to your health.

If you do smoke, stopping today is absolutely the most important thing you can do for your health. You can improve your diet, get more exercise, and take plenty of the other steps recommended in my program, but none of these healthy habits will be able to undo the damage that continued smoking will do to your body.

But other steps you take toward improving your overall health may become even more effective after you've stopped smoking. For example, the American Institute for Cancer Research reports that within a few weeks of adding more fruits and vegetables to their diets, people who have stopped smoking have increased blood levels of antioxidants and decreased oxidative damage. In other words, fruits and vegetables can do a lot more good in your body if they don't have to compete against the toxins from smoking. It makes sense!

On another note, boosting your fruit and vegetable intake right away may actually help you quit smoking! An interesting study from Duke University found that fruits, vegetables, dairy foods, and noncaffeinated drinks like water and juice made cigarettes taste worse to smokers, while caffeine, alcohol, and meat tended to make them taste better. So eating plenty of fruits and veggies and drinking lots of water may help you in your efforts to quit.

Don't wait for tomorrow to stop smoking. Quit right now! I know you can do it! It will be worth it, I promise!