Obese people have more ability to smell the food than slim people

For instance, people might be asked to rate their ability to imagine “the fragrance of the soap or shampoo you use to wash”, she said.

“Being better able to imagine odors could intensify the craving experience, which in turn would encourage food consumption”, Patel said.

They believe differences in our ability to dream up odours – especially those that whet the appetite – may play a role in food cravings. Now, it shall be noted that peoples’ ability in imagining smells differs as per food items like baked bread, chocolate or any other item.

Researches in future are focused on the objective ways of measuring the smell ability rather than the self-reported rating. Kavanagh’s elaborated intrusion theory of desire, which states that a mental image of cake might trigger a craving that’s quite hard to pay no attention to, conducted the new study at the John B.

New research has found that compared with people of normal weight, obese people conjure up more vivid images of aromas.

Within the University of Yale, one of the latest studies have made it possible to explain that, in fact, the ability to smell food is directly related to what we end up consuming. They plan to present the research on Friday (July 10) at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, a society that researches the science of eating and drinking behaviors.

The researchers found that individuals with a higher body mass index (BMI) reported greater ability to vividly imagine food and non-food odors. Not so with imagining odors.

If efforts to aid individuals’ weight loss are to be successful, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Barkha Patel, researchers will need to tease out the factors that make certain individuals particularly prone to overeating. Pierce Laboratory had participants complete a series of questionnaires that asked them to imagine visual and odor cues.