# Quitting smoking/NRT and sugar cravings.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quitting-smoking-nrt-and-sugar-cravings/768476>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 13, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quitting-smoking-nrt-and-sugar-cravings/768476 "2016-10-13T23:45:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quitting-smoking-nrt-and-sugar-cravings/768476/1 "2016-10-13T23:45:03Z")

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Not sure whether this belongs here or IMHO, but my (ever-expanding) gut tells me there’s a factual answer for this so here it is.

I quit smoking at the beginning of the year. Aside from a couple of very minor slips, I’ve not smoked at all. However, since the beginning of the year, I’ve been using nicotine gum instead. Anyway, this week I decided to come off the gum. I’ve gone cold turkey and it’s been nearly 3 days since my last piece. So far, so good. The only thing is that ever since I quit the gum I’ve had the most insanely intense sugar cravings. I’ve been knocking back 6, 7, 8 bars of chocolate a day, snacking on cakes and biscuits between meals, the works. It sucks because I’m trying to get in shape as well. Basically, all I want to know is:

a) Are these kinds of sugar cravings normal?  
b) What’s causing them?  
c) How long do they last?

Many thanks.

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**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quitting-smoking-nrt-and-sugar-cravings/768476/2 "2016-10-14T01:40:32Z")

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It is fairly hard to quit smoking and most people have physiological cravings for about one month. I don’t think finding a substitute is unusual, perhaps you could exercise before eating some of the sugar to put it to better use. But hopefully it’s short term.

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**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quitting-smoking-nrt-and-sugar-cravings/768476/3 "2016-10-14T03:08:28Z")

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Are you diabetic or pre-diabetic? Be careful. Sugar can be lethal also.