What to do if you smell fried chicken while losing weight?

▎Editor of WuXi AppTec's content team Many people who lose weight have such a painful experience: Even if they are full, they are moved by the smell of fried chicken, grilled skewers, and bread when they are walking on the street.
Staying repeatedly "breaks the precepts"
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Recently, researchers at Northwest University in the United States discovered that one simple and effective way to avoid being "seduce" by the smell of food is to change what you have eaten before
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Humans’ reduced sensitivity to food odors is based on the odors of foods that have been eaten before.
For example, if you have eaten sweet baked biscuits before, you are unlikely to stop and buy toast with similar flavors
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In other words, just as smell affects what we eat, what we eat also regulates our sense of smell
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The researchers pointed out that the feedback between food intake and the olfactory system may have evolutionary benefits.
The paper was published in the journal "PLOS Biology" (Image source: screenshot of the paper page) "Imagine when our ancestors roamed in the forest to find They will smell the fruity scent of berries and eat berries.
After eating, they will no longer be so sensitive to the scent of berries
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” The corresponding author of the paper, Professor Thorsten Kahnt, explained, “but maybe they are still sensitive to the smell of mushrooms, so Later, it’s easier to want to eat mushrooms
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Therefore, in theory, this negative feedback mechanism can help promote the diversity of human food and nutrition intake
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"Previous research found that the brains of sleep deprived subjects changed their response to odors.
And smell is related to diseases such as obesity, addiction and dementia
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Therefore, the research team wants to know whether food intake affects and how it changes our ability to perceive food odors
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Image source: 123RF In the experiment, the researchers let the subjects smell a mixed odor of food and non-food, such as the odor mixture of "pizza-pine" or "cinnamon bun-cedar".
The food and non-food in each mixture The ratio of food smells varies
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After smelling the taste, the subject will answer which taste is dominant
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Next, the hungry subject ate a meal that matched one of the odors
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Then, the research team calculated what proportion of food odors the subjects needed in the mixture at each stage in order to perceive the food odor as dominant in the non-food-food mixture
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▲Eating “smell-matching” foods will reduce the subjects’ sensitivity to perceiving related odors (picture source: reference [1]) The analysis results found that compared to when they are full, the subjects can perceive relative scents when they are hungry.
Low percentage of food odor
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For example, in the "cinnamon bun-cedar" mixed odor, hungry subjects can perceive 50% of the cinnamon bun scent, while eating "cinnamon bun" scented food requires 80% of the scent
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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides further evidence for this hypothesis
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MRI results showed that similar changes occurred in the brain regions of the subjects that process odors after meals, that is, the brain's sensitivity to meal-matching odors was reduced
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In addition, after a full meal, the subjects indicated that the smell of pure food became less pleasant
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▲MRI imaging validated this hypothesis (picture source: reference [1]) Professor Kahnt said that with a better understanding of the feedback loop between smell and food intake, he hopes to continue to explore whether lack of sleep will be To some extent damage the circuit
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"We are following up how this information is changed, and how the changed information is used by the rest of the brain to determine food intake
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" In short, what to do if you smell fried chicken while losing weight ? In addition to using strong willpower and eating full, an effective way may be to use air fryer to fry chicken before going to the streets, or use pleurotus eryngii instead of chicken, almond flour instead of flour and other healthy ways to make food with similar smells.
Satisfy our noses and appetites in advance! Reference: [1] Shanahan, LK (2021,).
Olfactory perceptual decision-making is biased by motivational state.
PLOS Biology.
https://doi.
org/10.
1371/journal.
pbio.
3001374[2] Your sense of smell may be the key to a balanced diet.
Retrieved August 26, 2021, from https://news.
northwestern.
edu/stories/2021/08/smell-perception-food-choices/