The stop-smoking shopping list

You know you can do it...but you might need a little help. Here's how to stock up so you can quit for good

Smoking is responsible for raising blood pressure, damaging arteries, skin cells and other tissues, and oxidising cholesterol. Yet the good news is that the moment you quit you are already undoing some of this damage and your body is beginning to bounce back. The suggestions below will give your body the nutritional tools it needs to get back to normal as soon as possible. Quitting in your 30s reverses most of the damage eventually, and quitting in your 50s still halves risks

Most smoking cessation therapies (patches, gums and inhalers) deal with the immediate addiction to nicotine, but there is more that can be done to ease the way. Nicotine is a very addictive substance, so using whatever dietary measures you can to reduce this dependency is a boost to your resolve. Cigarette smoke also contains thousands of chemicals, such as arsenic, cadmium, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde, which are toxic and damaging, so helping to eliminate these as early as possible is also going to make you feel a lot better.

Break the pattern with associated habits
The first important thing is to identify triggers that lead to the desire to smoke. From a dietary point of view, some of these will be, for example, 'just one' after a meal, with a drink, or with a coffee. Ways of breaking this habit is to eat breakfast cereal in the evening, swap coffee for mint tea, or drink juice and sparkling water instead of alcohol (which weakens your resolve anyway). Anything that breaks the pattern.

Grab good snacks that boost blood sugar
The most important thing to tackle with any addiction is the effect of low blood sugar. At times when you feel low, tired, hungry, or even dizzy, it is easiest to grab something instant such as a coffee, a chocolate, some biscuits, crisps or even...a ciggie. Instead of carbohydrate and stimulating foods and drinks that result in an overly-quick release of energy, followed by a subsequent energy slump (this is the danger point), make wise choices instead. This means snacking and basing meals on proteins - such as lean meat, fish, hummus, nuts, beans, seeds, yoghurt, or a little cheese - and wholegrains such as wholemeal bread, brown pasta, brown rice, porridge, oatcakes and rye crackers. These are more satisfying and release energy slowly over time meaning you can control those blood sugar lows and cravings. To aid blood sugar control, eat small, frequent, healthy meals, five or six times daily, rather than large meals.

Regulate blood sugar with supplements
Minerals that are most important for helping to regulate blood sugar are chromium (around 100-200 micrograms daily) and magnesium (around 200-350 miligrams daily).

Making up for deficiencies to improve skin and immunity
Smoking robs the body of important nutrients leaving insufficient reserves. Most notable is vitamin C, which is needed for immunity (it is needed for making white blood cells) and skin and gum health (it is essential for building collagen). So it is no surprise that smokers tend to suffer from colds and flu, have poor gum health, and skin that ages faster. To combat this, make sure you eat at least double the amount of vitamin C that other people need - 120 miligrams versus 60 miligrams daily for other people. Vitamin C rich foods are citrus, kiwis, strawberries, blackcurrants, peppers, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

Other important nutrients are zinc (from protein foods) and essential fatty acids (from nuts, seeds and oily fish). If you are taking a supplement make sure it has around 15-20 milligrams of zinc daily, and take around one gram of omega-3s daily.