Dolele

A smoker I know used to say: "Quitting is easy -- I've quit at least a dozen times." The real challenge is kicking butts for good.

Successful quitters have relied on different methods and tools -- and the American Cancer Society has a quiz that may help you find out what could work for you.For many, finding new, good habits may be key to replacing old, bad ones.Picking up a piece of fruit, instead of a cigarette, puts you on the path to better health in several ways.Choosing low-calorie, high-fiber produce over empty-calorie junk food will help you avoid the weight gain some quitters fear when going cold turkey.Whereas cigarettes deplete the body's stores of vitamin C, most fruits and veggies will help you replenish this important free-radical scavenging antioxidant.

Most important, you'll be trading in the most significant risk factor for lung cancer for consumption of a food researchers have linked to lower lung cancer risk.A report published last year in the International Journal of Cancer pooled results from eight different cohort studies, comprising the dietary data of 430,281 individuals.

Controlling for smoking-related risk, the study found subjects who ate the most fruit were found to have a 24% lower risk of developing lung cancer than those who consumed the least fruit.Apples, pears, oranges and tangerines were among those fruits showing a greater protective benefit.

Switching from cigs to fruit also will do wonders for your love life -- so far no complaints have been lodged about "orange-breath." What's more, saying nyet to nicotine avoids damage to those areas of the brain that affect emotional control and sexual arousal.

Turning down tobacco will not only help you turn up the heat in the bedroom (without creating a fire hazard), you'll also be saving your fertility.Smoking doubles a woman's odds of infertility.According to British researchers, 40% of malignant cervical cancer cases are caused by cigarette smoking.Quitting now can help your ovaries recover and increase your chances of conceiving in the future.

Cervical cancer is just one of the myriad ailments linked to smoking.Everyone knows that lung cancer tops the list, but did you know female smokers were up to three times more likely to develop the disease than their male counterparts? Differences in body composition, hormones and genetic factors may be responsible for the variance.But only you can be responsible for protecting yourself from smoking's deadly effects.

It's been 40 years since the Surgeon General's office first warned of the link between cigarettes and lung cancer.Since then, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, ulcers and cancers of the bladder, mouth, kidney, pancreas and stomach have been associated with the lethal habit.The good news is that the sooner you quit, the better your chances of regaining those years you might have forfeited if you kept lighting up.

Quit by 50 and you'll snatch six years back from the grim reaper.Quit by 40 and you'll gain nine years in life expectancy.Quit by 30 and over time your body will recuperate, giving you back the 10 years tobacco might otherwise have taken away..