Nicotine consumption for weight loss is a weight control method whereby one consumes nicotine, often in the form of tobacco, to decrease one's appetite. The practice dates to early knowledge of nicotine as an appetite suppressant.
Tobacco smoking was associated with appetite suppression among Pre-Columbian indigenous Americans and Old World Europeans.Gatley, I. 2003. Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization. New York: Grove Press, p.38 Tobacco companies have drawn connections between slimness and smoking in their advertisements, primarily with brands and advertisements that target women. While it is unclear how many people begin or continue smoking because of weight concerns, white female adolescents with established weight-related anxieties are particularly prone to initiate smoking. Although knowledge of nicotine's effects upon the appetite can contribute to people smoking for weight control purposes, studies have not shown that people smoke exclusively to maintain or lose weight.
Appetite suppression
Nicotine is an appetite suppressant. Nicotine could reduce appetite and influence an individual's eating habits. A study on nicotine's effects on appetite demonstrated that “net effects of nicotine include elevated blood pressure, heart rate, and gastric motility while eliciting a sustained decrease in food intake. Autonomic, sensory, and enteric neurons each constitute potentially important loci for nicotine-mediated changes in feeding behavior.”Young-Hwan, Jo, David A. Talmage, and Lorna W. Role,“Nicotinic Receptor-Mediated Effects on Appetite and Food Intake,” Journal of Neurobiology 53.4 (2002), p.622. Thus, cultural associations between tobacco smoking and weight control in part reflect the body's physiological reactions to nicotine.
Nicotine gum has similar effects to cigarettes in terms of appetite suppression, and there are some people who do not smoke, but use nicotine gum for the purpose of weight control or weight loss.
Nicotine can lower insulin levels in a person's bloodstream, which can reduce cravings for sugary foods.Kluger, Richard Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1996). Furthermore, “nicotine-triggered effects of adrenaline on the stomach’s musculature” lead to temporary feelings of subsided hunger. Other studies have shown that smokers expend more calories while engaged in activity, which echo conclusions that smokers experience heightened metabolic rates.
Smoking may be conducive to greater accumulation of visceral fat and greater insulin resistance, and increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
Whether smokers are actually thinner than nonsmokers is unclear. Some studies have shown that smokers—including long term and current smokers—weigh less than nonsmokers, and gain less weight over time.Albanes, Demetrius, D. Yvonne Jones, Marc Micozzi, and Margaret E. Mattson, “Associations between Smoking and Body Weight in the US Population: Analysis of NHANES II,” American Journal of Public Health 77.4 (1987) Conversely, certain longitudinal studies have not shown correlation between weight loss and smoking at least among young persons.Nichter, Mimi, Mark Nichter, Nancy Vuckovic, laura Tesler, Shelly Adrian, and Cheryl Ritenbaugh, “Smoking as a Weight-Control Strategy among Adolescent Girls and Young Women: A Reconsideration,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 18.3 (2004): 307 While the connection between nicotine and appetite suppression, as well as other physiological responses to nicotine consumption, has been established, whether these chemical and biological reactions translate to smokers being thinner than nonsmokers is still debated.
Perceptions of weight control among adolescents While most adults do not smoke for weight control,Nichter, Mimi, Mark Nichter, Nancy Vuckovic, laura Tesler, Shelly Adrian, and Cheryl Ritenbaugh, “Smoking as a Weight-Control Strategy among Adolescent Girls and Young Women: A Reconsideration,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 18.3 (2004) studies have shown that associations between tobacco use, being thin, and desire for weight control do influence adolescents in terms of smoking behavior. Research indicated that adolescent girls that strongly value being thin are more likely to initiate smoking,Honjo, K. and M. Siegel, “Perceived Importance of Being Thin and Smoking Initiation among Young Girls,” Tobacco Control 12.3 (2003), p.293 and that weight loss or weight control are seen to be one of the positive values of smoking.Elliot, Rosemary. Women and Smoking Since 1890. Routledge: New York, 2008, p.134 Additionally, girls already engaged in risky behavior for weight control are at increased odds to begin smoking.French, Simone A. and Cheryl L. Perry, “Smoking among Adolescent Girls: Prevalence and Etiology,” Journal of American Medical Women’s Association 51.1 & 2, (1996), p.28
Several studies have been conducted over the past decade examining this issue in depthSaarni, SE, K Silventoinen, A Rissanen, S Sarlio-Lähteenkorva and J Kaprio. 2004. “Intentional weight loss and smoking in young adults.” International Journal of Obesity (28)Nichter, Mimi, Mark Nichter, Nancy Vuckovic, Laura Tesler, Shelly Adrian and Cheryl Rittenbaugh. 2004. “Smoking as a Weight-Control Strategy among Adolescent Girls and Young Women: A Reconsideration.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly (18.3)Honjo, H. and M Siegel. 2003. “Perceived importance of being thin and smoking initiation among young girls.” Tobacco Control (12)Fulkerson, Jayne A, Ph.D and Simone A. French, Ph.D. 2003. “Cigarette Smoking for Weight Loss or Control Among Adolescents: Gender and Racial/Ethnic Differences.” Journal of Adolescent Health (32.306). While it has generally been found that white females are more likely to smoke to lose weight, smoking to lose or control weight is not limited to white females, but is prevalent across racial and gender boundaries.Fulkerson, Jayne A, Ph.D and Simone A. French, Ph.D. 2003. “Cigarette Smoking for Weight Loss or Control Among Adolescents: Gender and Racial/Ethnic Differences.” Journal of Adolescent Health (32.306), p.310 Within all racial groups, it has been found that weight concerns and negative body perceptions are a significant factor in an adolescent's decision to smoke.In a national survey of Serbian adolescents, boys who smoked had approximately twice the odds of reporting smoking for weight loss or weight control compared with girls who smoked, indicating that smoking as a weight-control strategy among adolescents is not limited to females. Compared to white male smokers, male smokers of American Indian and Asian descent, as well as male smokers of black, Hispanic and mixed descent, smoked more frequently to lose weight or control their weight. Heavy smokers and smokers who considered themselves overweight or who were concerned about their weight, reported significantly more that they used smoking as a method of weight control.
History in advertising It was not always socially acceptable for women to smoke cigarettes or use tobacco in public. However, over the course of about fifty years, advertising campaigns orchestrated by the tobacco industry changed societal attitudes, and represented tobacco use as a desirable pastime for the female consumer in both the United States and abroad.
Pre-1920s Prior to the 1920s, smoking was largely a male pastime and was thought of as a taboo act for women to participate in. During the 19th century, smoking and cigarettes were commonly associated with loose morals and sexual promiscuity.Greaves, L. 1996. Smoke Screen—women’s smoking and social control. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing Cigarettes came to be thought of as an occupational prop of prostitutes and sex workers, and were commonly present in Victorian-era pornography. Into the early 20th century, women faced possible arrest if they were caught smoking in public.
1920–1968 During the 1900s, women experienced upward socioeconomic mobility with the American women's rights movement as they gained new civil liberties. By the outbreak of World War I, as they experienced growing responsibility and freedom on the home front, an increasing number of women were using cigarettes as a tool to challenge traditional ideas about female behavior. However, it would ultimately be the tobacco industry's marketing influence that would turn the cigarette from a social liability into an accepted and desirable commodity for women to openly consume.Amos, Amanda and Margaretha Haglund. 2000. “From Social Taboo to ‘Torch of Freedom’: The Marketing of Cigarettes to Women.” Tobacco Control (9.1), p.4
Targeting women's waistlines The President of the American Tobacco Company, Percival Hill, was one of the first tobacco executives to seek out the women's market. Noting the 1920s fashion trends for bobbed hair cuts, short skirts, and slender figures, Hill saw the potential in selling cigarettes as an appetite suppressant so that women could achieve the decade's enviably small waistlines.
"Reach for a Lucky" Created by Albert Lasker for Hill and Lucky Strike, the “Reach for a Lucky” campaign is one of the most successful, albeit controversial advertising campaigns in the history of modern advertising.Brandt, Allen M. 2007. The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America. New York: Basic Books, p.71 Inspired by other campaigns that offered male consumers a reason why they should smoke a given brand (i.e. the Lucky Strike “It’s Toasted” campaign), Lasker sought to give the female market a reason to smoke as well.
Borrowing from the 19th-century slogan of Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, “Reach for a Vegetable,” that was marketed towards women for the alleviation of menstrual discomfort, Lasker and Lucky Strike launched the “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” campaign in 1925, followed by “For a Slender Figure—Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” in 1928.Goodman, Jordan. 1993. Tobacco in History: The Cultures of Dependence. London: Routledge, p.60 The print advertisement was disseminated by Edward Bernays throughout the fashion industry in numerous fashion magazines and daily newspapers featuring slender Parisian models and proclaiming the dangers of sugar consumption.Brandt, Allen M. 2007. The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America. New York: Basic Books, p.82 Famously, Amelia Earhart would also serve as a spokeswoman for the “Reach for a Lucky” campaign.
Early on, the print advertisements simply featured an attractive woman with any of the variations of the slogan above or underneath her, accompanied by a rendering of the Lucky Strike Box. Later, the advertisements would make a more pointed statement about weight gain, featuring either a man or a woman in profile view with his or her noticeably fatter shadow silhouette behind. While these early advertisements would focus on both men and women, later variations would target women specifically.