There may be more than nicotine that’s stopping you from giving up smoking. Research shows that cigarettes are designed to manipulate your taste buds too! The natural and added flavors to tobacco make it even harder for someone to quit.
Honey, vanilla, and cocoa may sound sweet and good but, cocoa, for example, is a nice treat when mixed in its powdered form with hot milk. But when burned in a cigarette, cocoa produces bromine gas, which both dilates and anesthetizes the lungs, maximizing their absorption of smoke and nicotine.
A person’s taste buds may be the reason that they begin to smoke or not. So-called bitter tasters are less likely to cite taste as a motivating factor for smoking—and less likely to smoke in the first place. However, those who have very little bitter tasters are much more likely to become addicted, according to research.
There’s never been a better time to be a half-assed vegetarian. Five years ago, the American Dialect Society honored the word flexitarian for its utility in describing a growing demographic—the “vegetarian who occasionally eats meat.” Now there’s evidence that going flexi is good for the environment and good for your health. A study released last October found that a plant-based diet, augmented with a small amount of dairy and meat, maximizes land-use efficiency. In January, Michael Pollan distilled the entire field of nutritional science into three rules for a healthy diet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” According to a poll released last week, Americans seem to be listening: Thirteen percent of U.S. adults are “semivegetarian,” meaning they eat meat with fewer than half of all their meals. In comparison, true vegetarians—those who never, ever consume animal flesh—compose just 1 percent. Read more…
According to Daniel Engber
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