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File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight
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Talk about getting royally screwed. Seems a recent study has found that smelling food before eating eat it could cause weight gain.

"Well, here’s some crummy news: Researchers at UC Berkeley say they’ve made a “really novel” discovery that smelling food before eating it could cause weight gain. In a Cell Metabolism article published last week, the team writes that the body’s sense of smell seems tied to its decision to store fat instead of burn it off. Their study was conducted on mice only (so apply all the standard disclaimers), but the correlation was still pretty remarkable. In short, three groups of mice — a regular set, a set whose sense of smell was briefly disabled, and a third set of “super-smellers” — were all fed what the authors call a high-fat “Burger King diet,” but the mice with messed-up olfactory systems barely gained any weight at all, especially compared to the other groups."


Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Sense of smell certainly impacts the perception of what you're about to eat, and how much of it you ultimately choose to eat. Would an enhanced sense of smell still result in weight gain if the food smelled bland, or rancid?

The article makes no mention of quantities consumed, only the content (i.e. diet) consumed.

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Re: File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight [burnman] [ In reply to ]
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burnman wrote:
Sense of smell certainly impacts the perception of what you're about to eat, and how much of it you ultimately choose to eat. Would an enhanced sense of smell still result in weight gain if the food smelled bland, or rancid?

The article makes no mention of quantities consumed, only the content (i.e. diet) consumed.

Not having any idea about dietetics, and only going on what I know of physiology and other aspects of the life sciences, but maybe that sense of smell supercharges the body's energy conversion and storage (to fat or adipose tissue) system -- or maybe partially bypasses glycolysis -- for a time, causing us to hold onto more kilocalories for an extended period? I'm clueless, though, and just supposing at this point.

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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My guess is that smelling food (especially carbohydrate rich foods) releases insulin into the blood stream, possibly as a mechanism to be ready to process the food. And I believe there's a link between insulin and weight gain.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/...ht-gain/art-20047836

Possibly the more insulin, the more likely food is stored in fat cells than used elsewhere. So smelling food in advance triggers the release of insulin earlier, which results in more insulin available, which means a higher percentage of the food consumed gets stored as fat.
Last edited by: AlanShearer: Jul 12, 17 9:38
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Re: File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight [AlanShearer] [ In reply to ]
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That makes a great deal of sense. Thanks for adding your insights, sir. :-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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big kahuna wrote:
Talk about getting royally screwed. Seems a recent study has found that smelling food before eating eat it could cause weight gain.

"Well, here’s some crummy news: Researchers at UC Berkeley say they’ve made a “really novel” discovery that smelling food before eating it could cause weight gain. In a Cell Metabolism article published last week, the team writes that the body’s sense of smell seems tied to its decision to store fat instead of burn it off. Their study was conducted on mice only (so apply all the standard disclaimers), but the correlation was still pretty remarkable. In short, three groups of mice — a regular set, a set whose sense of smell was briefly disabled, and a third set of “super-smellers” — were all fed what the authors call a high-fat “Burger King diet,” but the mice with messed-up olfactory systems barely gained any weight at all, especially compared to the other groups."


Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight

So if I'm able to extrapolate from the results, as long as I do something to jack up my olfactory system, I can eat a high fat diet and not gain weight? I'm going to tell my wife to punch me in the nose so I can eat fast food!
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Re: File This Under "You Can't Win": Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight [MOP_Roy] [ In reply to ]
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MOP_Roy wrote:
big kahuna wrote:
Talk about getting royally screwed. Seems a recent study has found that smelling food before eating eat it could cause weight gain.

"Well, here’s some crummy news: Researchers at UC Berkeley say they’ve made a “really novel” discovery that smelling food before eating it could cause weight gain. In a Cell Metabolism article published last week, the team writes that the body’s sense of smell seems tied to its decision to store fat instead of burn it off. Their study was conducted on mice only (so apply all the standard disclaimers), but the correlation was still pretty remarkable. In short, three groups of mice — a regular set, a set whose sense of smell was briefly disabled, and a third set of “super-smellers” — were all fed what the authors call a high-fat “Burger King diet,” but the mice with messed-up olfactory systems barely gained any weight at all, especially compared to the other groups."


Just Smelling Food Could Make You Gain Weight


So if I'm able to extrapolate from the results, as long as I do something to jack up my olfactory system, I can eat a high fat diet and not gain weight? I'm going to tell my wife to punch me in the nose so I can eat fast food!

More likely you might be able to eat a slightly higher portion of high glycemic carbs than otherwise.

I recommend one of Gary Taube's books on the matter. He's not without controversy, but as opposed to someone who's selling a diet, he's a science journalist who at least claims to be reporting on the science and distinguishing it from dietary myths.
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