When you hear the word “nicotine,” your mind probably jumps straight to cigarettes, shisha, vapes, or nicotine pouches. It's a natural association, since these are the products most people associate with nicotine consumption. But here's the twist: nicotine actually shows up naturally in some of the foods already sitting in your kitchen.
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 a nicotine product.
In this blog, we'll dive into the everyday foods that act as natural sources of nicotine, whether cooking changes the levels, and how those traces compare to more familiar nicotine sources, from cigarettes and shisha to nicotine pouches.
What is nicotine?
Let's start with the basics. Nicotine is a chemical compound known as an alkaloid, a naturally occurring substance that plants produce as part of their survival toolkit.
In nature, plants use nicotine as a built-in line of defence. While some animals grow spikes or learn to blend into their surroundings, certain plants got clever with chemistry instead. They produce nicotine as a natural pesticide: higher levels make them far less appealing, keeping hungry insects and other would-be attackers at bay.
Communities that first cultivated tobacco discovered that plants containing nicotine had noticeable effects on the mind, altering mood, increasing alertness, and creating a sense of relaxation. That discovery is what eventually led to tobacco being grown, traded, and consumed worldwide, and, much later, to the wide range of nicotine products available today, from shisha and cigarettes to tobacco-free formats like nicotine pouches.
So, which foods contain nicotine?
The natural sources of nicotine in our diet come mainly from plants belonging to the nightshade family, scientifically known as Solanaceae. This plant family includes several of the vegetables most common in kitchens across the UAE.
Most people are genuinely unaware that their regular meals contain trace amounts of this compound. The levels are incredibly small compared to tobacco or nicotine products, but they're measurable and consistent across a number of everyday foods.
What makes this particularly interesting is that these aren't exotic or unusual ingredients. They're staples that show up in kitchens every day, from a bowl of moutabal to a simple tomato salad. Let's take a closer look at five of the most common.
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Eggplant
Eggplant, also known as aubergine, tops the list when it comes to nicotine content in common foods, containing roughly 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 eggplant, roughly 20–25 medium-sized ones, which puts a bowl of moutabal firmly in perspective.
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Potatoes
Potatoes contain 0.0071 micrograms of nicotine 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 stay much the same.
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Tomatoes
Tomatoes contain approximately 0.0043 micrograms of nicotine per gram[1], though the ripening stage affects the exact amount. Green tomatoes typically contain slightly higher nicotine levels than their fully ripened, red counterparts.
You'd need to eat roughly 10–15 kilograms of tomatoes, around 60–80 medium-sized ones, to match the nicotine content of a single cigarette. That's enough to make a genuinely enormous batch of sauce.
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Cauliflower
Cauliflower contains around 0.016 micrograms of nicotine per gram[1]. Unlike most nicotine-containing vegetables, which usually belong to the nightshade family, cauliflower is the exception, sitting in the Brassicaceae family instead.
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Bell Peppers
Bell peppers, sometimes called capsicum, contain approximately 0.007–0.009 micrograms of nicotine per gram[1]. They're a genuine kitchen all-rounder too, whether sliced raw into a salad, grilled alongside a mixed grill, or stuffed and baked.
However they're prepared, bell peppers contribute only trace amounts of nicotine while delivering plenty of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Does cooking reduce nicotine in food?
Nicotine is fairly stable under heat, so cooking doesn't significantly change its levels. Even where there's a slight reduction, it's essentially negligible from a health perspective, given how tiny the amounts in vegetables already are.
What's reassuring is that whether you eat your vegetables raw, steamed, fried, or grilled, the nicotine content stays thousands of times lower than what you'd find in tobacco or nicotine products, far below any level that could have a meaningful effect on the body.
How much nicotine do nicotine products contain?
To understand just how minimal the nicotine content in food really is, it helps to compare it with actual nicotine products available in the UAE.
| Product | Nicotine content | Key notes |
| Cigarettes | 1–2mg absorbed per cigarette | 1–2mg absorbed per cigarette |
| Shisha (per session) | Varies with session length and set-up | Sessions typically run far longer than a cigarette, so total smoke exposure across a single sitting can add up significantly |
| Vapes | 3–50mg per ml of e-liquid | No natural off switch, can reinforce habitual use |
| Nicotine pouches | 2–20mg per pouch (depending on strength) | Tobacco-free, available in a variety of flavours including menthol and watermelon |
| Nicotine gum | 2–4mg per piece | Typically used as a quitting aid |
Even the lowest-strength nicotine product delivers around 1mg of nicotine per use. By contrast, the nicotine naturally occurring in foods like tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplant is measured in micrograms, one-millionth of a gram. That means the amount of nicotine in a cigarette, a shisha session, or a pouch is many thousands of times higher than the trace levels found in food.
For individuals already using tobacco products such as shisha or cigarettes who are looking for a tobacco-free format instead, übbs pouches offer a smoke-free alternative across a range of flavours and strengths.
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 vegetables every single day just to reach the nicotine content of one cigarette. Not only is that unrealistic, your stomach would give up long before you got anywhere near a noticeable effect.
That's why foods with trace amounts of nicotine don't have any noticeable impact on the body: the levels are simply too low to affect the brain's nicotine receptors.
But here's the good news: while these foods won't replace a nicotine product, eating more fruit and vegetables can still help if you're trying to cut back on smoking or vaping. Crunchy snacks like carrots are great for keeping your mouth busy, and some research has shown that people who eat more fruit and vegetables are more likely to succeed in quitting for good.
Does nicotine in food really matter?
From eggplant to bell peppers, plenty of common vegetables contain tiny amounts of nicotine. The key difference is that nicotine from food is absorbed slowly through the digestive system, unlike nicotine from shisha, cigarettes, or pouches, which reaches the bloodstream far more directly.
Combined with how small the amounts in vegetables are, this means dietary nicotine isn't something to worry about if you're cutting back, nor is it an effective substitute for a nicotine product.
So, does nicotine in food really matter? Not really, it's more of a fun fact to bring up over dinner.
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 routine.
Sources:
[1]: https://www.pmiscience.com/en/smoke-free/nicotine/nicotine-from-plants-to-people/
