5 Everyday Foods That Contain Nicotine
When you hear the word "nicotine," your mind probably jumps straight to cigarettes, vaping devices, or nicotine pouches. It's a natural association, after all, these are the products we most commonly link with nicotine consumption. But here’s the twist: nicotine actually pops up naturally in some of the foods you eat every day.
In fact, the average person consumes approximately 1.4 micrograms of nicotine daily through food alone, completely without realising it. That's right, you've been exposed to nicotine your entire life, even if you've never smoked, vaped, or used any nicotine products!
In this blog, we’ll dive into the everyday foods that act as natural sources of nicotine, how cooking might change the levels, and how those traces compare to the nicotine in products like pouches.
What is nicotine?
Let's start with the basics. Nicotine is a chemical compound known as an alkaloid, which is a naturally occurring substance that plants produce as part of their survival toolkit.
In the case of nicotine in nature, plants use it as a built-in line of defence. While some animals grow spikes or learn to blend into their surroundings, certain plants decided to get clever with chemistry. They produce nicotine as a natural pesticide: higher levels make them far less appealing, keeping hungry insects (and other would-be attackers) at bay.
Indigenous communities in the Americas discovered that certain plants containing nicotine had effects on the mind – they could alter mood, increase alertness, and provide a sense of relaxation. This discovery led to tobacco being cultivated, traded, and, eventually, consumed worldwide.
So, which foods contain nicotine?
The surprising nicotine sources in our diet come mainly from plants belonging to the nightshade family, scientifically known as Solanaceae. This plant family includes some of the most common vegetables and fruits we consume daily.
When we talk about nicotine and diet, most people are completely unaware that their regular meals contain trace amounts of this compound. The levels are incredibly small compared to tobacco products, but they're measurable and consistent across various foods in the nightshade family.
What makes this particularly fascinating is that these aren't exotic or unusual foods: they're everyday ingredients that appear in kitchens around the world. Let’s take a closer look at the five common foods that contain nicotine.
1. Aubergine
Aubergines top the list when it comes to nicotine content in common foods, containing roughly about 0.1 microgram of nicotine per gram[1] of fresh weight.
To match the nicotine in a single cigarette, you’d need to eat around 9–10 kilograms of aubergine, which is roughly 20–25 medium-sized ones!
2. Potatoes
Potatoes contain 0.0071 micrograms per gram of fresh weight[1].
Cooking doesn’t significantly reduce the nicotine either, so whether they’re baked, boiled, mashed, or fried, the levels remain pretty much the same.
3. Tomatoes
Tomatoes contain approximately 0.0043 micrograms of nicotine per gram[1], however the ripening stage affects nicotine content. Green tomatoes typically contain slightly higher nicotine levels compared to their red, fully ripened counterparts.
You'd need to consume roughly 10-15 kilograms of tomatoes to match the nicotine content of a single cigarette. That's approximately 60-80 medium-sized tomatoes, enough to make a truly enormous batch of pasta sauce!
4. Cauliflower
Cauliflower contains around 0.0016 micrograms of nicotine per gram[1]. Unlike most nicotine-containing vegetables, which usually belong to the nightshade (Solanaceae) family, cauliflower is an exception as part of the Brassicaceae family.
5. Green Peppers
Green peppers (bell peppers) contain approximately 0.007-9 micrograms of nicotine per gram[1]. They’re a true kitchen all-rounder too, whether you’re crunching them raw in a salad, tossing them into a stir-fry, stuffing them, or layering them on top of a pizza.
However they’re prepared, they contribute small amounts of nicotine while also delivering excellent nutritional value through vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Does cooking reduce nicotine in food?
Nicotine is quite stable under heat, so cooking doesn’t significantly change its levels. Even if there’s a slight reduction during cooking, it’s essentially negligible from a health perspective because the amounts in vegetables are already so tiny.
What’s particularly reassuring is that, whether you eat your vegetables raw, steamed, fried or roasted, the nicotine content stays thousands of times lower than what you’d find in tobacco products, far below any level that could have meaningful effects on your body.
How much nicotine do nicotine products contain?
To truly understand just how minimal the nicotine content in food really is, it's helpful to compare these levels with actual nicotine products.
|
Product |
Nicotine Content |
Key Notes / Risks |
|
Cigarettes |
1-2mg absorbed per cigarette |
Contains additional toxic chemicals from combustion |
|
Vapes |
3-50mg per ml of e-liquid |
No natural off switch, habit reinforcement |
|
Nicotine pouches |
2-20mg per pouch (depending on strength) |
|
|
Nicotine gum |
2-4mg per piece |
Medical purpose as quitting aid |
Even the lowest-strength nicotine product delivers around 1 mg of nicotine per use. By contrast, the nicotine that naturally occurs in foods such as tomatoes, potatoes or aubergines is measured in micrograms, which is one-millionth of a gram. That means the amount of nicotine you’d get from a cigarette or pouch is thousands of times higher than the trace levels found in food.
Can foods containing nicotine be used to reduce nicotine use?
To put things into perspective: you’d need to eat around 10–15 kilos of the most nicotine-rich veggies every single day just to reach the nicotine content of one cigarette. Not only is that impossible to pull off, but your stomach would give up long before you got anywhere near a nicotine “effect.”
That’s why foods with trace amounts of nicotine don’t have any noticeable effect on the body, the levels are simply far too low to affect the brain’s nicotine receptors.
But here’s the good news: while these foods won’t replace your nicotine product, eating more fruit and veg can still help if you’re trying to quit smoking. Crunchy snacks like carrots are great for keeping your mouth busy, and research has even shown that people who load up on fruits and vegetables are more likely to succeed in quitting for good.
Does nicotine in food really matter?
From aubergines to peppers, many common vegetables contain tiny amounts of nicotine. The key difference is that when you consume nicotine through food, it’s absorbed slowly through your digestive system, unlike nicotine from pouches or cigarettes, which enters the bloodstream directly.
Combined with the fact that the amounts in vegetables are extremely small, this means dietary nicotine isn’t something to worry about if you’re cutting back, nor is it effective as a substitute for nicotine products.
So, does nicotine in food really matter? Not at all, it’s more of a fun fact to bring up at the dinner table.
Of course, if you’re curious about experiencing nicotine in a more intentional way, that’s where we come in. At übbs, you’ll find a full range of tobacco-free pouches, all delivering measured amounts of nicotine in flavours and strengths to suit your vibe.
