Here's one way to make cigarettes less appealing: Make the packaging boring.


A new study from Australia shows that people find cigarettes less satisfying[1] and of poorer quality when they come in plain packaging. They also think about quitting smoking more frequently than people whose cigarettes come in a branded package.


The findings, published in the journal BMJ Open[2] , are based on data from 536 smokers in Victoria, Australia. Australia is the only country to require plain packaging for all tobacco products, as well as big graphic health warnings that take up the majority of one side of the packaging; this went into effect in December 2012.


"When cigarettes aren't disguised by flashy packaging[3] and carefully crafted branding, smokers see them for what they are -- a lethal product which kills half of its long term users," Kate Alley, who is the tobacco policy manage for Cancer Research UK, told BBC News.


For the study, participants were interviewed by phone before, during and after the plain-packaging started. The researchers found that 72.3 percent of the participants were smoking cigarettes from the new plain packs, while 27.7 percent were smoking cigarettes from branded packs.


Researchers asked the participants a number of questions about their perceptions of smoking and cigarettes. Between those who smoked cigarettes from plain packs and those who smoked cigarettes from branded packs, they found little difference in their thoughts about how bad tobacco was to their health, as well as the frequency with which they thought about cigarettes' damage to their health.


They did find people smoking cigarettes from the plain packs were 66 percent more likely to consider their cigarette quality worse from the last year, and 70 percent more likely to report the cigarettes were less satisfying. Plus, they rated quitting as a higher priority in their lives than those who smoked from branded packs, and 81 percent more likely to consider quitting smoking once a day (at least) for the past week.



However, Bloomberg reported that despite the plain packaging on the cigarettes, legal tobacco sales figures[4] were unchanged for the first six months of the new rules on packaging.



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  • Mindfulness


    Mindfulness training helped participants in a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21723049" target="_hplink">2011 <em>Drug and Alcohol Dependence</em> study</a> to stay off cigarettes.

    That study included 88 people who smoked 20 cigarettes daily, on average, who were split up into two groups: One received four weeks of mindfulness training, while the other group went through four weeks of an <a href="http://www.ffsonline.org/" target="_hplink">American Lung Association stop-smoking program</a>.

    The researchers found that more of those who went through the mindfulness training smoked fewer cigarettes -- and stayed off them -- than those who went through the other stop-smoking program.

    The mindfulness training included <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/minding-the-body/201204/can-mindfulness-help-you-quit-smoking" target="_hplink">realizing when you're facing a craving</a>, accepting it, thinking about what's happening and then taking note of the sensation (whether it's tightness or pressure), <em>Psychology Today</em> reported.




  • Weight Lifting


    Jogging and bicycling aren't the only exercises that could help you kick the smoking habit -- <em>Shape</em> magazine reported that <a href="http://www.shape.com/latest-news-trends/study-says-weight-lifting-can-help-smokers-quit-and-lose-weight" target="_hplink">weightlifting could help</a>, too.

    The research, published in the journal <em>Nicotine & Tobacco Research</em>, showed that doing two hour-long weightlifting sessions for 12 weeks <em>plus</em> undergoing treatment to quit smoking was linked with greater success in quitting smoking, compared with just undergoing the stop-smoking treatment.




  • Eat Produce


    <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/10/fruits-vegetables-quit-smoking-smokers-tobacco_n_1581465.html" target="_hplink">Eating lots of fruits and veggies</a> could help smokers maintain a tobacco-free lifestyle, according to research from the University of Buffalo.

    The study, published in the journal <em>Nicotine and Tobacco Research</em>, included 1,000 smokers ages 25 and older. The researchers had the participants answer surveys about their smoking habits and their fruit and vegetable intake. Then, they followed up with them 14 months later and asked them if they used tobacco over the past month.

    The researchers found that there was a relationship between the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/10/fruits-vegetables-quit-smoking-smokers-tobacco_n_1581465.html" target="_hplink">amount of fruits and vegetables</a> the study participants ate, and the likelihood that they quit -- and stayed off -- tobacco. In fact, people who ate the most produce in the study were three times more likely to report that they'd been tobacco free in the previous month.

    The researchers also found a link between increased produce consumption and taking longer in the day to have the first cigarette, smoking fewer cigarettes, and decreased dependence on nicotine (based on test results).




  • Acupuncture And Hypnosis


    A review of studies suggests there is evidence that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/acupuncture-quit-smoking-hypnosis_n_1497348.html" target="_hplink">acupuncture and hypnosis</a> can work to help quit smoking, Reuters reported.

    Researchers, who published their findings in the <em>American Journal of Medicine</em>, said that other options -- like medications and counseling -- should be tried first, but that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/11/hypnosis-quit-smoking_n_1248444.html" target="_hplink">hypnosis</a> and acupuncture could help if those options don't work, or if people don't want to go on medications, according to Reuters.




  • Text Messages


    Who knew your phone could be used to help you quit smoking?

    A recent study published in the <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)60701-0/abstract" target="_hplink">journal <em>The Lancet</em></a> showed that smokers who enrolled in a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/smoking-text-message_n_888188.html" target="_hplink">program called "txt2stop"</a> -- where they received encouraging text messages to quit smoking -- were twice as likely to kick the habit after six months, compared with smokers who didn't get any encouraging messages.

    In the study, conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, one group was able to text words like "lapse" and "crave" to a phone number, and <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20075843-247/want-to-quit-smoking-try-text-message-support/" target="_hplink">received an encouraging text</a> message in return, CNET reported. The other group of people, however, only got one text message every two weeks, and that message just thanked them for being part of the study.




  • Quitting Smoking And Health


    Eletta Hansen explains some facts about smoking, and discusses if your body gets healthier after you quit smoking