When many people are quitting smoking they find themselves getting recommendations from others to substitute other foods or objects to put in their mouths to deal with possible craves. This video discusses the potential pitfalls of following this common advice.

Related resources:

• Do whatever it takes to quit smoking
• Crutches to quit smoking
• Using deep breathing as a safe and effective quitting aid
• Carrying mock cigarettes

Additional commentary originally used on the Freedom from Nicotine board:

Sunflower seeds are not that particularly low in calories. One ounce worth which can easily be eaten in a serving would be 162 calories. Lets day you “treat” yourself to one serving a day at one ounce each as a kind of crutch replacement to quitting smoking. In one month you would have consumed 4,860 extra calories which will translate to almost 1.4 pounds of fat. In one year this replacement behavior if not stopped would translate to over 16 pounds of extra fat. Be careful with food as a substituted behavior, no matter how natural the food may be.

The only crutch that involves no risk or implications is breathing. You can do it any time and any where you want to and the day you have to stop breathing, well smoking probably wouldn’t make a difference that particular day. Except even on that dreadful day taking a drag would rob you of your final victory to have proven to yourself and the world that you were a person of your word–for the day you joined here and quit smoking you had made a promise to yourself that you were personally committed to Never Take Another Puff!

Joel