Calorie restriction increases cigarette use in adu

Authors: Lawrence J Cheskin Judith M Hess Jack Henningfield David A Gorelick

Publish Date: 2004/11/25

Volume: 179, Issue: 2, Pages: 430-436

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Abstract

Cigarette smokers weigh less than nonsmokers and smokers often gain weight when they quit This is a major barrier to smoking cessation especially among women However strict dieting is not recommended during smoking cessation out of concern that it might promote relapse This concern derives in part from the observation that calorie restriction increases selfadministration of drugs of abuse in animals This relationship has never been experimentally demonstrated in humansSeventeen nine males eight females healthy normalweight smokers not attempting to quit were cycled in partially counterbalanced order doubleblind through four diets—normal calorie 2000–2800 kcal/day low calorie 700 kcal/day deficit lowcarbohydrate CHO/normalcalorie and lowCHO/lowcalorie—for 6 days per diet in an inpatient research ward Smoking was assessed by cigarette counts breath carbon monoxide CO levels and cigarette cravingCompared with the normalcalorie diet while on the lowcalorie diet subjects smoked 8 more cigarettes P002 and had 11 higher breath CO levels P001 The lowCHO/normalcalorie diet showed no significant effect on either variable but there was a 15 increase in breath CO levels P005 on the lowCHO/lowcalorie diet There were no changes in selfreported cigarette craving or moodConsistent with animal studies moderate calorie restriction was associated with a small but statistically significant increase in cigarette smoking with no independent effect of CHO deprivation These findings suggest that dieting may increase smoking behavior and could impede smokingcessation attemptsSupported by NIDA intramural funds and NIH grant no 5MO1RR02719 Portions of this work were presented at the 55th and 56th Annual Scientific Meetings of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence June 1993 and June 1994 respectively We are indebted to Karen Koffler MS and Helene Pokrywka MS for nutritional assessments Joan Frank RN for subject care David Goldsborough BA Nancy Kreiter MA and Matthew Tayback ScD for help with data analysis and Lynnia Fiorelli for manuscript assistance

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