Fact: 70-75% of how you experience flavor is due to your sense of smell.
Anecdote: A friend told me about a friend (isn’t this how all good anecdotes start?) who had lost his sense of smell in an accident and consequently lost 20 pounds easy-peasey because, in my friend’s words, “Everything pretty much tasted the same. Brownies tasted like whole wheat bread so why not just eat the bread then?”
At the time my eating disorder – one of several, is there such a thing as multiple personality disorder for EDs? – was in full swing and I fantasized about losing my sense of smell. Wouldn’t that be awesome?! I’d never have to struggle with my weight again! Of course I’d never be able to luxuriate in the smell of my baby’s hair fresh out of a bath or inhale a lilac so hard the petals shoot up my nose. And what’s Christmas without my homemade orange-cinnamon potpourri? Then I realized that while I really wouldn’t miss brownies much – they’re just kind of meh for me – I’d definitely miss being able to appreciate a fragrant curry or an almond sugar cookie.
As anyone who has ever had a really wicked head cold knows, your nose is integral to both the function and pleasure of eating. And understanding how taste and smell interact can help you use them to your advantage says several new research studies. Two main opposing theories have emerged.
Calories Without Flavor
I was first intrigued by this idea when I came across The Shangri-La Diet: The No Hunger Eat Anything Weight-Loss Plan
Where was I? Yes, it all goes back to smell. Not only is smell a huge part of taste but apparently it’s also “the most powerful of all the five senses” (although how they measure that I’m not sure and also, there are way more than five senses). Roberts contends through a theory of evolutionary biology that I won’t totally go into here that one way our bodies recognize a time of consistent access to food is by taking in a certain amount of flavorless calories. Research has long shown us that people who yo-yo diet tend to end up weighing more than people who don’t diet at all and it’s supposed that this is because the body experiences the diets as famines and therefore feels compelled to inhale everything in sight when not dieting to prepare for the next famine.
And yet to lose weight, one must reduce their caloric intake without triggering these eat-or-die hormonal landmines. Roberts’ solution to this dilemma is to ingest a certain number of calories – twice your body weight – in flavorless calories per day. The flavorless calories are supposed to emulate the diet that people would eat in a time of neither feast nor famine, just plain-jane eating. Which sounds oddly cannibalistic now that I type that out. Anyhow, the body lowers its internal set point for body weight when it realizes it has plenty of calories and doesn’t need to store a great excess. To achieve this he recommends using extra light (not extra virgin) olive oil and taking it in the middle of a “flavor-free” two-hour window. Although he says you can use any oil as long as you can’t smell it. A lot of Shangri-La dieters practice “nose clipping” which is simply eating a certain amount of your daily calories with your nose clipped shut so that you can’t smell them and therefore your body essentially experiences them as flavorless.
In a world where every diet recommends eating as few calories with as much taste as possible – the whole idea behind artificial sweeteners, yes? – this is a completely novel approach. And based on the few blog reports I’ve read and people on his message boards it works very well for quite a lot of people. As much as I love me some anecdotal evidence, I’d have to see some actual research to back up Roberts’ theory to be sold on this idea.
Flavor Without Calories
On the other hand, we have the more traditional approach of trying to get the most flavor for your caloric buck. When Vaportrim e-mailed me about trying their flavor sticks – scent-filled plastic sticks that look like cigarettes as imagined by Zebra gum – I’ll admit I agreed to try them mostly for the entertainment factor. How hilarious would it be, I thought, to “smoke” my cravings for sweets away? Unfortunately the smoking aspect got unfunny really fast when I watched my kids sucking on my sample sticks and practicing blowing smoke rings (you exhale water vapor that looks like smoke) at each other. I ripped them out of their tiny hands and took up puffing them while hiding out on my back deck, reminding me uncomfortably of my grandmother in her two-pack days. (Not to be confused with Nana’s Tupac days because those were sheer awesome.)
Still, the idea of sniffing a scent to trick your brain into feeling sated intrigued me. There is a lot of research showing that people who smell certain scents feel a lessening of cravings and therefore lose weight. One study even showed that people who lose their sense of smell generally gain weight from eating too much in an effort to find the satiety they experienced when they could smell (which I suppose blows my friend-of-a-friend anecdote to pieces).
I tried out the peppermint and pina colada “flavors”. I can’t say they did much for me. I think the first problem was that they didn’t smell how I expected them to smell. Specifically, the pina colada one smelled like a Strawberry Shortcake doll I had growing up and therefore reminded me of chewing on plastic hair and picking my nose instead of a delicious dessert. Although we’ve already established that I’m probably hypersensitive to smell compared to other people. Second, I couldn’t get past the whole smoking feel of it. The models on the site even hold the sticks like one would normally hold a cigarette (albeit someone in the Lollipop Guild). Third, the reviews on the site are… suspect, at best. As far as I could tell they didn’t reduce my cravings at all although perhaps since I’m not trying to lose weight, I was a bad test subject? Or perhaps this particular method just doesn’t work for my body – I tried Sensa, a product based on similar principles, twice (years ago) and it never worked for me either.
Which Way Works?
Does smell make you crave more food or does it make you feel full? Does the type of smell matter? Does the type of food being eaten matter? Do you eat less when you have a head cold because you can’t smell your food or because you feel sick? Does puffing on a Vaportrim stick help some people lose weight because of the scent or because it distracts them from their craving? Does Schrodinger’s cat nose-clip?? I have no idea. So many questions left but I find the research and theories behind each way very interesting and they both make sense in their own way.
What have you noticed about your sense of smell as related to your taste? Any of you have experience with either of these theories and/or products? Anyone else super sensitive to smells? I worked at Bath & Body Works for a while in college and would get so overwhelmed by all the heavy scents that I’d have breathe into my sleeve to get a break.
I have a hyper-sensitive sense of smell. I can be sitting in an enclosed office (no windows open any more !) and I ask people “Can you smell smoke” and no-one else can. Then we go outside and can smell smoke . My colleagues joke that they’ll keep me around just as an early warning system !
I haven’t found that it affects what I eat very much, unless something smells bad (either because it’s past it’s prime or just because of herbs or something in the dish) then it puts me off whatever it is. I must admit that I can’t eat pretzels because of how they smell ! They stink out the entire shopping centre when they’re cooking – gross !
I’m wondering if drinking some light olive oil being effective has more to do with the oil itself curbing hunger pains (oil makes you feel satiated). Bit of a cross between researchers there. I don’t think I could do that though, too much oil like that would make me feel ill. I can eat it in a dish, or dairy but I couldn’t just drink it (although I did work with a guy who would drink vinegar ! Yuck ! All things considered his tooth-enamel loss and feral breath was the least of his hygiene issues).
I also notice, now that I think about it, that if there is a strong smell around then I can’t eat…. Interesting…..
I’ve never tried those products, the first thing I thought of was “I wonder if they’d help me quit smoking” *lol*
I don’t know but if you try them to quit smoking let me know how it goes! It seems like it would at least keep your hands busy…
I think my sense of smell is quite average. But I’ve noticed that my appetite gets totally out of control when I have a head cold. I could eat all day long. Maybe it’s because I can’t smell my food, and my body doesn’t notice that I’ve eaten anything? I’ve always been jealous of people who lose their appetite when they are sick.
And I usually get hungry whenever I smell food, no matter what it is.
Is this a joke? This makes me sick! I never enjoyed smelling my shoes ever since. It stinks!
Maybe we can invent a way to block noses like people have had their mouths wired shut for weight loss 🙂
I can’t walk into Bath and Body works for longer than a few minutes – I get a headache. I never thought about it, but maybe my sense of smell is sensitive. I definitely notice that when I am sick and can’t smell that all food tastes the same. Whether I eat less because of the smell thing or just because I’m sick, who knows. Those stick things are kind of weird and I’m super skeptical.
Haha – glad I’m not the only one with a scented-lotion phobia;)
I find the relationship between smell and taste fascinating, all though both these approaches to weight loss seem, um, a bit out there. I’ll have to look for a little more research before I start smoking flavor sticks or quaffing between-meal shots of olive oil. As something of a hedonist, the whole POINT of food is that it tastes good, so any eating plan that would require me to “waste” calories on something with no flavor would have to be pretty darn miraculous for me to try it.
I’m actually fearful of the prospect of losing a good part of my sense of smell as I get older, which from what I understand is somewhat inevitable… I hope scientists are working really hard on that one. I don’t want my brownies to taste like whole wheat bread!
THis: ” the whole POINT of food is that it tastes good, so any eating plan that would require me to “waste” calories on something with no flavor would have to be pretty darn miraculous for me to try it.” is such a great perspective and exactly why I need sane people in my life, lol!
Isn’t there another product on the market that is supposed to play off of the sense of smell when it comes to weight loss? Sensa, or something? I don’t know much about it aside from the fact that I see annoying little ads for it on the internet.
Hmmm… I think I’d be one of those people who would gain weight if they lost their sense of smell. When I have a head cold, I think I probably end up eating more in an effort to derrive some satisfaction from my now tasteless food.
Yes, I mentioned Sensa at the end of the post – I tried it for 3 months once and it didn’t do anything for me.
I have a confusing sense of smell. I can rarely identify any of the scents that I catch a whiff of, but I get really overwhelmed in stores like Bath and Body works. Also, when I’m sick or stuffed up, I don’t lose my sense of taste, everything just starts to taste bad. Weird, right?
On a side note, thanks for bringing up Fun Stripes! That used to be my favorite gum, and I’m convinced is the basis for my fascination with zebras!
Ooh fun stripes! THAT is what it was called! Loved that stuff although the flavor didn’t last long:(
Fun Stripes!!!!!! Yay!
I’ve been reading about those Vaportrim sticks. They seem…odd. And, yeah, the resemblance to cigarettes seem to be turning a lot of people off. Especially if you have kids.
These are interesting theories, but I’m with Crabby: I want to eat and enjoy my food.
And I’m kinda glad I’m not hypersensitive to smells: I LOVE Bath & Body Works,lol!
You are a brave soul. I can’t even walk IN to a Bath & Body Works, let alone spend hours of unbroken time there.
LOL, I can’t do it anymore! I pretty much avoid it and all things like it now.
wow, this is crazy! I mean, I understand the concept…(every time I have a cold I lose weight because I can’t smell anything!) but this all seems so complicated!
i do have to say though that when you mentioned nose clippings, I immediately thought of a pile of nose hair clippings….is that totally crazy? i thought so….haha
We’re a scent free household. Had to stop wearing perfume when I became a massage therapist, and I got so used to not wearing it, that the smell of any strong scent now makes me gag.
I know when I have a cold I don’t eat as much, and I know it’s because I can’t taste the goodness. Therefore, I’ve always been intrigued by Seth Robert’s theory.
First, the perfume type smells & all that Bath & Body works stuff – give me headaches!!!
On the smell to make you feel full – me – don’t get it. I want chewable food! 😉 Certain smells really make me crave like fresh baked bread or cookies! 🙂 Bad smells. don’t make me not want to eat but just not want to eat the bad smelling food so for me, I think this whole thing of smelling something will make us full is a NOT in my book. Yes, some may be able to tick themselves into it but I don’t buy it…
I read the last comment but when I am sick, I just don’t feel good & that is why I don’t eat… sometimes I feel well enough to eat & I do & there are times I eat even if I can’t taste it because I know I need the nutrients… I guess to each their own…
I don’t have much to add except my nose is wildly inaccurate. The korean bbq place across from my gym always smells like pizza. I have a “guess the lunch” game with my officemate and I am always way off.
I’m all for the “make it taste as good as possible with the most heathiness as possible”. I’ll pass on this, thanks!
My husband hasn’t been able to smell since he was 5. So, of course, he’s a pretty skinny guy. He insists that he can taste–he does like brownies and cookies still, but he can’t tell the difference in Starburst flavors or jelly beans. Sometimes we like to play a game where he has to guess the flavor just to test it and he is always wrong!
Anyway, I don’t envy him. I have so many memories linked to smell that I didn’t realize until we started dating. I also really like the smell of baking cookies–even if it makes me definitely want to eat at least one, whereas he can easily pass them up if he is still full (although he usually doesn’t!)
Interesting topic! Not the first time I think about it. I do notice that smell affects my hunger and cravings. In my case it depends on how long I’m smelling a particular (good) odour. If I smell something delicious on a small time scale – like baking a single batch of bread or walking in front of a restaurant/bakery – then it can trigger wicked cravings. However I noticed that when I cook or bake all day I pretty much forget to eat – both for personal weekend cooking or for bake sales/catering prep. It’s like the smell alone is enough to tell my stomach to shut up. I don’t nibble much on what I’m cooking either, only occasional tasting for seasoning.
I think the sense of smell is the sense that dulls the quickest – after a while in a room you won’t smell the same as when you walked in – so maybe if smell and hunger are related it eventually dulls the hunger too? From a evolutionary standpoint, that would mean in we don’t crave the food sources that are bountiful and all around us and crave the rarer fruits/nuts/meat we smell now and then? I can think of a few possible adaptive advantages, like not depleting a common food source too fast by over eating it, and gorging on rarer sources of nutrients like vitamins or protein when those sources are available.
Overall I think most of my cravings are triggered by sight or thought rather than smell, like seeing a picture of chocolate eclair and then not being able to get it out of my mind.
Rats just reread my comment and now I want a chocolate eclair…
As a Beginner, I am continually surfing around on-line pertaining to articles that could benefit me. Thanks
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on sites I stumbleupon
on a daily basis. It will always be exciting to read articles from other
authors and use a little something from their websites.
The moments tick by slowly when we must wait days before determining if we are pregnant.
With a distinctive mix and match of designer and high street labels, Westfield London offers the ultimate London shopping experience.