Professor Linda Bauld , Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies , says : “ There are behavioural factors to vaping which prevent people from reaching for food - the hand-tomouth action of vaping can help satisfy the smoking habit . “ There are also the sensory aspects ; inhaling flavours can be a replacement for eating – breathing in the vapour and holding it in the mouth , experiencing the mouthfeel , can be a substitute for food .”
Bauld stresses that weight gain prevents some smokers from quitting and so it ’ s important to explore alternative ways of helping individuals to control this , whilst removing the risks of tobacco use . She added : “ Obesity is a huge problem and is rapidly catching up with smoking as the leading preventable cause of early death , with 50,000 deaths and more cancers being linked to poor diet in the UK every year . “ If there ’ s a chance that flavoured vaping could help even a small proportion of people reduce the diabetes , cardiovascular and cancer risks associated with excess weight , the population health gains would be significant .”
In order to test the theory that vaping flavoured e-cigarettes can help fight food cravings as well as relieve tobacco withdrawals , VapersWAREHOUSE surveyed a panel of 800 vapers and these are their results :
SENSE OF TASTE MPROVES AFTER QU TT NG SMOK NG 38 % of vapers say their taste has improved since quitting smoking .
VAP NG QUASHES FOOD CRAV NGS Over a third of vapers ( 34.75 %) say using e-cigarettes helps to satisfy their craving for food .
HAND TO MOUTH ACT ON AND F AVOURS OF VAP NG HAVE MORE MPACT ON APPET TE THAN N COT NE The majority of these people ( 52 %) said it is the hand-to-mouth action of vaping which distracted them from eating and 30 % said the e-liquid flavour helps to replicate the feeling of eating . Surprisingly , only 20 % said it is the nicotine in e-liquids that suppresses their appetite .
SWEET F AVOURED VAPES ARE MOST POPU AR BUT MEN PREFER SAVOURY F AVOURS 38 % of vapers ( majority female ) said sweet-flavoured vapes were their favourite guilty-pleasure food substitute , with 18 % ( majority male ) plumping for meat-flavoured e-liquids and 8 % choosing cheese ! Other vapers showed a more niche preference , saying the guilty-pleasure food they ’ d most like to see as an e-liquid would be fries or curry .
VAPERS RECOMMEND E C GARETTES AS A D ET A D 45 % of vapers said that , based on their own personal experience , they ’ d recommend vaping as a diet aid to help ex-smokers cut down on snacking and lose weight .
VapersWAREHOUSE also conducted street interviews with volunteer vapers to test the theory that sweet-flavoured vapes satisfy a sweet tooth – and also asked can savoury-flavoured vapes stop vegetarians and vegans craving meat and cheese .
You can check out the video on their VapersWAREHOUSE YouTube channel .
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