When Smoking Tastes Good, It's Harder to Quit

You may find yourself missing more than nicotine when you finally snub out your last butt. Cigarettes are designed to manipulate your taste buds too, and research shows that tobacco’s flavors, both natural and added, can hold extra sway for many people struggling to quit.

"The sensory components—the taste of it, the feel of inhaled smoke—these are an important part of why people smoke," says Joseph McClernon, PhD, an assistant research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center.

And they are also an important part of why people quit. "Taste can potentially help us explain who smokes and who doesn’t," says McClernon.

A little chocolate with your cigarette?
A typical cigarette may include cocoa, honey, vanilla, and licorice. While the taste of a particular brand has a lot to do with its tobacco blend, hundreds of additives may be included to smooth out the tobacco’s rough edges and create a more delicious puff.

This may sound like nothing more than a tricky way of winning your loyalty to a particular brand—or to cigarettes in general. But many of these additives can be dangerous when inhaled. "The additives are found in a lot of products that are eaten and are safe, but when burned they’re different products," explains K. Michael Cummings, PhD, chair of the department of health behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.

Cocoa, for example, is a nice treat for a cold winter’s night 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.