Quitting smoking is a challenging problem for many people, so, what are some methods to quit smoking? Recently, a study in the United States found that gargling with lemon water can help quit smoking. What's the specific reason for this?
Gargling with Lemon Water Can Achieve Short-term Smoking Cessation
A new study from the United States, published in the journal "Psychological Science," found that smokers who gargle with lemon water can more successfully quit their addiction.
The University of Georgia in the US conducted multiple self-control tasks on 51 students to understand whether lemon gargle can improve self-control while enhancing attention and energy.
The first task was particularly demanding of self-control, where student participants tried to cross out as many letter E's as possible on a page of a statistics textbook. The second task was the Stroop test.
The stimuli used in the experiment were contradictory in color and meaning. For example, the word "red" written in blue. The experiment did not ask the participants to read the word, but to say the color of the word, which is "blue."
During the Stroop test, half of the students gargled with sweetened lemon water, while the other half gargled with lemon water containing an artificial sweetener. The results showed that the first group of students reacted to the colors faster.
Professor Leonard Martin, the lead researcher of the new study, said that researchers previously believed that people only generate energy and improve self-control after drinking sugar water.
However, the new research results show that the glucose in sweetened lemon water stimulates simple carbohydrate "receptors" on the tongue, which in turn sends a specific signal to the brain, telling the body to increase its attention.
Professor Martin stated that in the Stroop test, participants took an average of 3-5 minutes to complete the task, which was a test of self-control.
However, lemon glucose gargle may not be sufficient for the self-control required for behaviors like weight loss or quitting smoking. It is not yet known whether lemon glucose gargle has an effect on long-term self-control.
Therefore, people who plan to quit smoking will find it difficult to succeed by relying solely on gargling with lemon water, but it can help to some extent with short-term smoking cessation.
Which Foods Help with Quitting Smoking
In terms of medicinal and dietary ingredients, people quitting smoking can moderately add herbs and ingredients such as Chinese yam, white fungus, Glehnia littoralis, Ophiopogon japonicus, ginseng, bird's nest, Cordyceps sinensis, ginkgo nuts, donkey-hide gelatin, peanuts, and lotus root to their diet, or stew water pears with lily bulbs.
Quitters can cook "Brown Sugar Tofu." The method is to take one block of tofu, poke several holes in it, add a large tablespoon of brown sugar, and steam them together in a rice cooker for 30 minutes. Whenever you feel like smoking, eat a few spoonfuls. Afterward, you won't want to smoke when you smell the scent of cigarettes. However, the amount consumed should be moderated to avoid excessive calorie intake.
In addition, people who want to quit smoking can eat one dried persimmon before a craving for cigarettes hits, continuously for one month. This can help break the addiction to nicotine. Those with particularly strong cravings need to supplement with dried persimmons in moderation.
Withdrawal symptoms often cause restlessness, irritability, and an inability to concentrate. It is recommended that quitters engage in more dynamic exercises and routines, such as fast walking, jogging, twisting the body and swinging arms, which can help expel negative energy. Practicing arm-swinging exercises consistently for one hour a day for one to three weeks can improve most withdrawal symptoms.
Quitters should also find their own ways to manage cravings. For example, Buddhists can silently chant Buddhist mantras, Christians can silently recite Bible verses, or one can sing loudly, listen to music, stretch, take deep breaths, drink small sips of good water or fresh vegetable juice, wear clean, smoke-free clothes, wash the body and clean the mouth to thoroughly remove the smell of smoke from the body. Alternatively, one can chew gum, eat a mix of nuts as a snack, twirl a pen, or chew on stick-shaped celery, carrots, or cucumbers to replace the habit of having a cigarette in the mouth. Addressing these habits in daily life is the way to escape the harm of smoking as soon as possible.