In the study, presented in a recent meeting of the Congress of Dietetics in Edinburgh, Scotland, Researcher Catherine Collins reported that overweight people lost an average of 4.5 pounds after four weeks of using the patch on their backsets hands. Collins is a dietist chief at the São Jorge Hospital in London.
Collins and colleagues shared 200 volunteers overweight in three groups, which used a vanilla patch, a scented placebo patch with lemon or no patch. Over the four weeks, those who used the vanilla patch showed a greater decrease in appetite - as well as lesser wishes for chocolate and other high calorie sweets - when compared to volunteers in the other two groups.
The study is one of several that suggest that we can be able to lose weight simply smelling our favorite foods.
"It is very clear that odors can affect a person's behavior and appetite," says Alan Hirsch, MD, neurological director of smelling and taste treatment and Chicago Research Center.
Collins finds make perfect "aromas" for Hirsch, which made many similar studies.In a study of more than 100 people, participants smelled several odors of feed in tubes, or tubes with non-food aromas, whenever they were hungry for a period of two weeks. Overall, people lost more weight when they smelled the odors than when they smelled the placebo tubes, the study showed.
In another six-month study of almost 3,200 people, participants who inhaled banana, peppermint or cream pie believers when they were hungry lost an average of 30 pounds over six months, says Hirsch.
"You can use odors to facilitate weight loss. We are not sure why, but perhaps providing a smell can satisfy the desires - or perhaps the participants were too busy to eat," he pounded.
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Hirsch notes that people who lose their sense of smell gain an average of 10 pounds. "There is a direct connection between the sense of smell and satiety," says WebMD.
."A substantial proportion of patients with smell loss gains weight - at least initially," she says. This may be because they do not get the same food satisfaction as they did when they had a sense of smell, she says.
The sensation of taste only constitutes sweet, sour, bitter or salty, so the feeling of smell is a large part of food pleasure, says Cowart. "If you can not smell, you can not tell the difference between vanilla or chocolate or other flavors," she explains.
But, she says, "If you can reduce a person's appetite, exposing them to smells, however, a little more than a questionable proposal."
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