Food and Tobacco: What's the Connection?
A few years ago, I approached Jan Longone, Curator of American Culinary History at the William Clements Library at the University of Michigan and namesake of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive, to request her help in identifying documents on the tobacco-food connection.
She furrowed her brow, thought for a long minute, then replied skeptically, “Wouldn’t you rather study the alcohol-food connection?”
From the perspective of a culinary historian she had a point. Alcohol has a long history of being a staple at the dinner table – initially as a safer alternative to water, later because of taste considerations as well. It undoubtedly contributed to the transition from hunter-gatherer to agrarian societies. More recently, in the context of a global market, much print and e-print has been devoted to interesting food and alcohol pairings, no longer limited by proximity. In addition to taste factors, alcohol has psychoactive effects that can sharpen the palate, release inhibitions, and in general enhance the pleasure of a meal. Likewise, eating can slow down the consumption of alcohol and mitigate some of its intoxicating effects. Food and alcohol – yes, there’s a story there, and a good one.
The food and tobacco connection, as Jan in her tactful way implied, is harder to fathom. There’s little evidence that tobacco smoking enhances the taste of food. Indeed, many studies demonstrate the contrary, and improved sense of taste is often touted as a reason for quitting. Tobacco smoking is also notorious for suppressing appetite, making it all too popular as a dieting tool, especially among women. Why, then, have cigarettes and cigars so often been served as an accompaniment to a meal – sometimes to the extent of being framed as part of a meal, as simply one more course? Why is the line between food and tobacco so often blurred? (Think food as a tobacco flavoring agent - the most important being sugar, the best-known being menthol.) Why does tobacco compete so successfully with food – for budgetary resources at the individual level and agricultural resources on a global scale?
As someone who has spent much of her professional career studying the effects of smoking and nicotine on appetite, food consumption, body weight, and disordered eating, and as someone with an amateur’s interest in food, cooking, culinary history, and food security, I have considered several possible answers to this conundrum. Is it addiction, driving all else from its path? Is it a tribute to the efforts of Big Tobacco and its perpetual sidekick, Big Advertising? Is it the paradoxical alerting and relaxing actions of nicotine, offsetting the soporific effects of a large meal and possibly alcohol, and bringing the arc of the meal to a close? Is it the belief that tobacco promotes digestive health? Does smoking paired with fine dining help to communicate affluence? Is smoking a way for the large underfed populations of the planet to suppress the pain of hunger? All of the above?
This website is an attempt – not to provide a definitive explanation, but bring these issues together under one big tent and to assemble scientific evidence, graphic documentation, and expert opinion relating to the food and tobacco connection across modalities, time, and cultures. Regardless of what brought you here, welcome. I invite you to join me in exploring this issue and to read my blog. And if you share my fascination with this topic or any part of it, please consider making your own contribution to what I hope will turn out to be not a solo effort but a wiki.
She furrowed her brow, thought for a long minute, then replied skeptically, “Wouldn’t you rather study the alcohol-food connection?”
From the perspective of a culinary historian she had a point. Alcohol has a long history of being a staple at the dinner table – initially as a safer alternative to water, later because of taste considerations as well. It undoubtedly contributed to the transition from hunter-gatherer to agrarian societies. More recently, in the context of a global market, much print and e-print has been devoted to interesting food and alcohol pairings, no longer limited by proximity. In addition to taste factors, alcohol has psychoactive effects that can sharpen the palate, release inhibitions, and in general enhance the pleasure of a meal. Likewise, eating can slow down the consumption of alcohol and mitigate some of its intoxicating effects. Food and alcohol – yes, there’s a story there, and a good one.
The food and tobacco connection, as Jan in her tactful way implied, is harder to fathom. There’s little evidence that tobacco smoking enhances the taste of food. Indeed, many studies demonstrate the contrary, and improved sense of taste is often touted as a reason for quitting. Tobacco smoking is also notorious for suppressing appetite, making it all too popular as a dieting tool, especially among women. Why, then, have cigarettes and cigars so often been served as an accompaniment to a meal – sometimes to the extent of being framed as part of a meal, as simply one more course? Why is the line between food and tobacco so often blurred? (Think food as a tobacco flavoring agent - the most important being sugar, the best-known being menthol.) Why does tobacco compete so successfully with food – for budgetary resources at the individual level and agricultural resources on a global scale?
As someone who has spent much of her professional career studying the effects of smoking and nicotine on appetite, food consumption, body weight, and disordered eating, and as someone with an amateur’s interest in food, cooking, culinary history, and food security, I have considered several possible answers to this conundrum. Is it addiction, driving all else from its path? Is it a tribute to the efforts of Big Tobacco and its perpetual sidekick, Big Advertising? Is it the paradoxical alerting and relaxing actions of nicotine, offsetting the soporific effects of a large meal and possibly alcohol, and bringing the arc of the meal to a close? Is it the belief that tobacco promotes digestive health? Does smoking paired with fine dining help to communicate affluence? Is smoking a way for the large underfed populations of the planet to suppress the pain of hunger? All of the above?
This website is an attempt – not to provide a definitive explanation, but bring these issues together under one big tent and to assemble scientific evidence, graphic documentation, and expert opinion relating to the food and tobacco connection across modalities, time, and cultures. Regardless of what brought you here, welcome. I invite you to join me in exploring this issue and to read my blog. And if you share my fascination with this topic or any part of it, please consider making your own contribution to what I hope will turn out to be not a solo effort but a wiki.