When it comes to watching your weight, sometimes we think the sheer smell of delicious, mouthwatering food can be a healthy substitute for the real deal. But we’ve got some bad news for you.
According to a study published in Cell Metabolism by UC Berkeley, researchers discovered that your sense of smell is actually tied to your body’s decision to store fat, rather than burn it all off.
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Meaning, just smelling your mom’s baked brownies or those tacos from that food truck outside your office has the power to impact how much you eat and gain later on.
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In a study conducted with three groups of mice, a set of “super smeller” and a group whose smell was briefly disabled were all fed the same amount of a high-fat “Burger King” diet.
However, as the study concluded, it was found that the mice with an impaired sense of smell gained the least amount of weight. Moreover, they barely gained any weight, just about 10 percent of their body weight, but that was it.
Matching this conclusion, the “super smellers” gained the most weight and literally doubled in their size, essentially showing that the our olfactory system, responsible for smell, affects both appetite and metabolism.
Lead study author, Celine Riera told SF Gate that in the context of food and appetite, it’s all very new, noting that sensory-blocking tactics could also be applied to those looking to drop a few pounds.
But there are some risks, as she states “People that don’t have a sense of smell can get depressed, because the sense of smell is very important for behavior. They lose all pleasure of eating.”
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