Can changing your diet help you quit smoking?

The following story was related to me the other day by an American friend also living here in New Zealand. She's about to turn sixty. I'll let you do the maths in the narrative below as told in her words. Her experience with nutrition and smoking is fascinating and encouraging. Perhaps all those struggling to overcome the nicotine addiction should give a vegan diet a chance. What is there to lose?

I started smoking at age 15 and loved every cigarette. At age 26 I moved to Tokyo to teach at an International School. I was in the land of smokers so I never thought of quitting. But my students would beg me to quit so I would try-without success. Since my Dad died of hardening of the arteries when I was 16, I was always very careful with diet. I didn't like meat. It was too hard to digest but I enjoyed eating chicken, turkey and lamb. I took nutrition courses as often as I could and started thinking of becoming a vegetarian. 

Twelve years ago, I decided to eliminate all animal products from my diet and didn't have problems with the change. But a surprise came about three months after changing my diet... I woke on a Sunday morning, and I didn't go for a cigarette. The first thing I did every morning was to grab for a cigarette and the last thing at night was a cigarette. For me not to have an urge was certainly a surprise. I thought, I'll take it one hour at a time, and the day passed with no urge. A week passed and then a month. It's now been 12 years. I never went through any withdrawal or any kind of unpleasantness. I cannot explain the correlation between having no animal products in my diet and no desire to smoke but what happened to me was just amazing. I just hope it happens to someone else. 

Has anyone reading this had a similar experience? Do let me know.

Blessings,

John