Many people think that smokers who are not smoking for a while – perhaps because they are in a smoke-free setting or can’t smoke for some reason – tend to eat more instead. But this study from the University at Buffalo says not, News Medical reports.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, looked at smokers who were abstaining from smoking and tried to gauge their motivation to buy cigarettes, food and water during this period. They found that staying away from cigarettes doesn’t affect how much the person would spend on food or water.

Smoking is an extremely addictive activity, and quitting is typically unsuccessful. This could be so because smokers are less motivated to seek a non-nicotine reward compared to the cigarettes, and this gap only increases when they stop smoking. This may shift the balance towards smoking again. Some studies have found that female smokers experienced a greater reward with snacks during abstinence compared to smoking periods, and this was also greater than that experienced with nonsmokers. The current study was aimed at finding out whether food has greater reward value during smoking and abstinence periods.

Researcher Stephen Tiffany says, “We found with this sample in this study that the motivations for cigarettes, food and water do not interact very much. Smoking abstinence does not affect the motivation for food and water.”