Sorry, But Not Smelling Doesn't Make You Lost Weight
"The Doctors," that smug-Dr.-Phil show, was on in the background this morning and one of their segments caught my eye.
Some woman asked if she plugged her nose while she was eating, would she eat less. In other words, does your sense of smell affect how much you eat?
They did a cute little demo of blindfolding her and clipping her nose, then fed her bits of food and tried to get her to identify them. She only guessed potato right, but even with her sense of smell cut off, she still knew when the taste was a muffin. "That's go-ooo-od," she said.
So, here's the deal. Our sense of smell is very important to our eating habits, but probably not in the way you think. A friend recently lost his sense of smell from using too much nasal spray and now he eats everything he can get his hands on, hoping desperately to get a taste of something.
But those of us who have noses who work can be thankful that they allow us to savor our food, to pick out the sweet from the sour, the rich from the too-unadulterated (like my cooking).
Smokers, who often have the nasty taste of nicotine on their tongues, use more salt, according to the show, though, from what I've seen from most of them, shaped like sticks, they don't eat very much at all. Hmm...maybe that's why.
Imagine what life would be like if we couldn't taste the sweet spark of a raspberry, or the buttery scent of a croissant, or a fine glass of wine? Obviously, we'd survive, but a certain richness would certainly be lost. Eating is a big part of life, not just to survive, but to enjoy. I know when I've been dieting for a long time and have a bite of carrot cake, it's never tasted so sweet, and satisfying. Now, if I could only stop at a bite!
Some woman asked if she plugged her nose while she was eating, would she eat less. In other words, does your sense of smell affect how much you eat?
They did a cute little demo of blindfolding her and clipping her nose, then fed her bits of food and tried to get her to identify them. She only guessed potato right, but even with her sense of smell cut off, she still knew when the taste was a muffin. "That's go-ooo-od," she said.
So, here's the deal. Our sense of smell is very important to our eating habits, but probably not in the way you think. A friend recently lost his sense of smell from using too much nasal spray and now he eats everything he can get his hands on, hoping desperately to get a taste of something.
But those of us who have noses who work can be thankful that they allow us to savor our food, to pick out the sweet from the sour, the rich from the too-unadulterated (like my cooking).
Smokers, who often have the nasty taste of nicotine on their tongues, use more salt, according to the show, though, from what I've seen from most of them, shaped like sticks, they don't eat very much at all. Hmm...maybe that's why.
Imagine what life would be like if we couldn't taste the sweet spark of a raspberry, or the buttery scent of a croissant, or a fine glass of wine? Obviously, we'd survive, but a certain richness would certainly be lost. Eating is a big part of life, not just to survive, but to enjoy. I know when I've been dieting for a long time and have a bite of carrot cake, it's never tasted so sweet, and satisfying. Now, if I could only stop at a bite!
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