Smelling high-calorie foods can make you eat less: Study
| Jan 18, 2019, 14:02 IST
Just a whiff of a hot out of the oven pizza and you are ready to have a taste. While you may satisfy that desire, it's not good for your weight loss goal. Now, researchers have found the smell of high-calorie foods can actually make you eat less.
Smelling this delectable, yet unhealthy food for longer than two minutes, has been found to make a person feel satiated.
For the study, nebuliser was used to conduct tests. It gave off the smell of junk food, as well as healthy food. Cookies versus strawberries were part of the first test, while apples and pizza were used for the second.
The team notes the length of exposure time of being exposed to the scent is crucial in predicting whether we will indulge.
The study discovered that ambient food scent has the ability to directly satisfy the belly because the brain cannot differentiate the source of sensory pleasure.
"Ambient scent can be a powerful tool to resist cravings for indulgent foods. In fact, subtle sensory stimuli like scents can be more effective in influencing children's and adults' food choices than restrictive policies," lead author Dipayan Biswas, Professor at the University of South Florida in the US, told a news portal
The discovery could be crucial in helping to tackle obesity, which can lead to a series of health issues like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Smelling this delectable, yet unhealthy food for longer than two minutes, has been found to make a person feel satiated.
For the study, nebuliser was used to conduct tests. It gave off the smell of junk food, as well as healthy food. Cookies versus strawberries were part of the first test, while apples and pizza were used for the second.
The team notes the length of exposure time of being exposed to the scent is crucial in predicting whether we will indulge.
The study discovered that ambient food scent has the ability to directly satisfy the belly because the brain cannot differentiate the source of sensory pleasure.
"Ambient scent can be a powerful tool to resist cravings for indulgent foods. In fact, subtle sensory stimuli like scents can be more effective in influencing children's and adults' food choices than restrictive policies," lead author Dipayan Biswas, Professor at the University of South Florida in the US, told a news portal
The discovery could be crucial in helping to tackle obesity, which can lead to a series of health issues like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.