A fool and his money are soon parted – old English proverb. Modern version: There’s one born every minute.

Whether it’s a seemingly miraculous cure for hair loss, type 2 diabetes, erectile dysfunction, or a recently rediscovered ancient formula guaranteed to abolish unhappiness, it’s all to be found on the internet.

The spiel is always the same: a video that you must view to the end during which you’re told all the awful things that can happen if you don’t avail yourself of the wonderful cure, or of all the good things that can happen if you learn the secret formula for acquiring instant money. The cost? Typically it’s $39.00. And now…how to cure smoking with coconut oil! This scam is called The Quit Smoking Protocol. It’s an e-book by one Aisha Murphy.

What should put off any discerning reader for a start is that it’s illiterate. Here are a few quotes:

Thats right!

neither me nor my husband cared about the dangers of smoking

the intense cravings for Nicotine that over powered him every day

Roberts poor health came to a head

Fortunately, Roberts health slowly improved

Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention

The writing is also likely to upset those of a sensitive disposition with its profanity:

those d*** Nicotine patches

Well, what’s the big secret? Our Aisha ‘scoured the internet, visited libraries and read through hundreds of smoking journals.’ Unfortunately, all this effort was useless. But by a lucky chance she met an old lady from a certain part of India ‘where smokers are never addicted to Nicotine and quit whenever they feel like [it] with no side effects.’ A miracle! This place, we’re told, is ‘A remote jungle village called Shankapura, in India.’ Unfortunately, there’s no such place. Perhaps she means Shankarapura.

Aisha then refers to ‘a study carried out in July 2011 [which] proved that coconut oil really could help with Nicotine dependency.’

This is a study, published in an online journal, of experiments on rats who were tortured by being injected with nicotine. It’s of no relevance whatsoever for humans who smoke.

If you can bear watching the video to the end you will learn that the secret to curing nicotine addiction is – wait for it – dietary manipulation including the consumption of coconut oil.

Don’t waste your money.

The only cure for nicotine addiction is to stop using nicotine – in any form.

How to do this is easier than you might think. It’s all explained in my book, Stop Smoking with the Symonds Method, available from all good bookshops and Amazon.

Text © Gabriel Symonds