People trying to quit smoking often hear that some vegetables contain nicotine and can make quitting easier. The first part is true.
Nicotine is common in nature. Beyond tobacco, it occurs in trace amounts in other plants of the nightshade family: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant. It is easy to confuse with nicotinic acid, which has a similar name but is a different substance, vitamin B3 (niacin). Nicotinic acid has no nicotine-like effect.
Smoking delivers nicotine in huge amounts. Over time that builds dependence and leads to serious diseases, from cardiovascular conditions to cancer. When a person quits, the nicotine supply drops sharply.
Vegetables can’t fill that gap. Tomatoes contain around 42.8 nanograms of nicotine per gram. A smoker takes in about a milligram of nicotine from one cigarette, so matching a single cigarette would take more than 20 kg of tomatoes.
A better diet still helps people who quit. The changes they go through often bring low mood, which pushes them back to cigarettes, so regular, varied meals matter.
Doctors advise people who have given up cigarettes to eat broccoli, which is good for the respiratory system.
Pineapples and bananas are also recommended. Pineapple is rich in minerals: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper and iron, all of which support the immune system. Bananas contain nicotinic acid and vitamin B6, and people often notice their mood lifts a little after eating them.
