Effects of Cigarette Smoking and Family History of Alcoholism on Sweet Taste Perception and Food Cravings in Women

More than 250 million women worldwide smoke tobacco, one of the most heavily addictive drugs (Mackay and Eriksen, 2002). Not only do women suffer greater relative risks of smoking-related diseases (see Perkins, 2001 for review), but they smoke for different reasons and have more difficulty quitting than men (Scharf and Shiffman, 2004). Among the many sex differences related to smoking (see Perkins, 2001 for review), women derive more pleasure from the smell and taste of cigarettes (Perkins et al., 2001, 2002), have a stronger motivation to use nicotine to avoid or reduce negative affect (Hogle and Curtin, 2006), and are more likely to smoke to control their body weight (Levine et al., 2006; Perkins, 2001). In fact, relapse often occurs because of concerns with postcessation weight gain (Levine et al., 2006). As early as 1928, ad campaigns such as “Light a Lucky and you’ll never miss sweets that make you fat” capitalized on women’s concerns about their waistlines. Cigarettes were marketed as a fat-free alternative to diminish sweet cravings and satisfy hunger. This message was so effective that market shares of Lucky Strikes™ increased by more than 200% (Amos and Haglund, 2000). Research conducted during the past few decades suggested that the effectiveness of these marketing campaigns was due in part to the effects of nicotine on taste and its underlying reward systems, and not just the power of suggestion. Long-term nicotine exposure decreases (Grunberg, 1982), whereas abstinence from smoking (Hall et al., 1989; Perkins et al., 1990; Spring et al., 1991) or cessation of nicotine treatment in animals chronically exposed to nicotine (Grunberg et al., 1985) increases, consumption of palatable, particularly sweet-tasting, foods. Moreover, epidemiological data on per capita consumption patterns in the United States revealed that when cigarette consumption is high, sugar consumption is low and vice versa (Grunberg and Morse, 1984). The reasons for the association between smoking and sweet consumption remain unknown. Perhaps smoking and smoking cessation alter cravings for sweets and foods in general, and eating or drinking something sweet and rich in carbohydrates reduces cravings for cigarettes (West et al., 1990), due to shared neurobiological and psychological mechanisms (Alsene et al., 2003). In addition, smoking may affect sensitivity to sweet taste and thereby alter preferences. However, research studies in this area remain equivocal. Whereas some studies found that smoking decreased sweet taste sensitivity (Sato et al., 2002), others found opposite (Pursell et al., 1973) or no (Peterson et al., 1968; Pomerleau et al., 1991; Redington, 1984) effects. Differences in psychophysical methodology, recency of smoking and lack of information on the subjects’ smoking history may have contributed to these mixed results. The present study aimed to determine the effects of acute nicotine exposure as well as smoking history on sucrose taste sensitivity, preferences, food cravings, and sweet-taste analgesia; sweet taste analgesia data will be presented elsewhere. To analyze the acute effects of nicotine per se, smokers were tested 30 minutes after smoking nicotine cigarettes on 1 test day and nicotine-free cigarettes on the other. To determine whether a history of smoking affected these variables, women who had been smoking for varying numbers of years were compared to women who had never smoked. Information on alcohol use and family history of alcoholism was obtained for each subject because of the significant comorbidity between tobacco and alcohol use (Sher et al., 1996), the suggested inverse relationship between alcohol and carbohydrates consumption (Mela 1989; Gruchow et al., 1985), and the observation that individuals with family history of alcoholism have an increased sweet taste preference (Kampov-Polevoy et al., 2003).