Mere smell of food may make you fat! 

This also points out to a key connection between the olfactory or smell system and regions of the brain that regulate metabolism, in particular the hypothalamus, though the neural circuits are still unknown, the researchers explained.

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What researchers say?

• Your sense of smell that helps in enjoying the food.
• May be inadvertently making you fat while the lack of it may trick the body into thinking it has already eaten, researchers say.
• The findings revealed that obese mice that lost sense of smell lost weight on a high fat diet.
• While their counterparts with a strong sense of aroma ballooned to twice their normal weight.
• The result suggests that the odour of what we eat may play an important role in how the body deals with calories.
• This also points out to a key connection between the olfactory or smell system.

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• In addition, regions of the brain that regulate metabolism, in particular the hypothalamus, though the neural circuits are still unknown, the researchers explained.
• Expert from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.
• “The study shows if we manipulate olfactory inputs we can actually alter how the brain perceives energy balance and how the brain regulates energy balance,” said expert.
• Mice as well as humans are more sensitive to smells when they are hungry than after they have eaten.
• So perhaps the lack of smell tricks the body into thinking it has already eaten.
• While searching for food, the body stores calories in case it’s unsuccessful, but once food is secured, the body feels free to burn it, expert noted.

Cell Metabolism:

• The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
• It implies that loss of smell also plays a key role in humans who often become anorexic.
• Anoxeric, an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about weight and what they eat.
• Andrew Dillin from the University of California, Berkeley.
• “Sensory systems play a role in metabolism. Weight gain isn’t purely a measure of the calories taken in. It’s also related to how those calories are perceived,” explained.
• If we can validate this in humans.
• Perhaps we can actually make a drug that doesn’t interfere with smell but still blocks that metabolic circuitry. That would be amazing.