Just a sniff of fried food can satisfy cravings: Study

All you need is just a whiff of the fried dish and the food scent in itself can satisfy your cravings, saving you from consuming hundreds of calories, says a new research. According to a study published in the journal titled Marketing Research, smelling fatty foods can possibly lead to satisfying your cravings.

The reason for this is assessed to be due to brain’s inability to precisely differentiate the source of sensory pleasures. Ambient scent can be a powerful tool to resist cravings for indulgent foods, the study’s lead author Dipayan Biswas, a marketing professor at the University of South Florida College of Business, notes. Sensory stimuli like scents can be more effective in influencing the food choices of children and adults, than have restrictive policies, the study adds.

The study also found that those participants exposed to the smell of cookies for longer than two minutes picked up strawberries, instead of the cookies, as they didn’t find it desirable any longer. On the other hand, those who were exposed to the smell for less than 30 seconds, were more likely to still want a cookie. So, the research finds a direct observation between the length of exposure time to a certain smell and whether or not one will indulge in the food afterward. For those foods that don’t give off much of an ambient scent, the study found the results to be the same.