Our sense of smell can affect how we perceive food, according to a recent study. The study showed that there is a surprising link between obesity and the ability to smell.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) can help determine if a person is obese. The BMI is a tool that nutritionists and doctors use to identify if a person is in an ideal weight for his or her age, height, and gender. This has been the common practice of determining a person's body weight and likelihood for obesity.
However, a recent study by researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand revealed a link between our olfactory abilities and body weight. In their study published in Obesity Reviews, the team gathered data of 1432 subjects from "empirical and clinical worldwide studies."
Dr. Mei Peng, from the University of Otago's Department of Food Science and lead author of the study, vouched by the team's compiled evidence that determines the link between body weight and ability to smell. The olfactory ability has a strong influence on people's eating behavior. It influences how we identify and choose between different tastes and obese people tend to have a poor sense of smell when it comes to food.
Dr. Peng pointed out that obese people do not have an efficient smell when it comes to discriminating and detecting flavors as slim people. Obese people tend to be more attracted to saltier and tastier food such as maple syrup and bacon, instead of low-fat cereal with less sugar, which she described as blander food.
"This can result in obese people having a higher chance of making poor food choices because they will need other forms of stimulation to enjoy food."
The researchers claimed that an obese person has a metabolism that altered several altered peptides and hormones associated with the gut-brain signaling pathway.
This is where two of the known surgical remedies to combat obesity comes in; gastric bypass and stomach removal, with the latter having a good effect on olfactory ability according to research. Cutting the stomach could alter nerves in the stomach responsible for the gut-brain pathway. This process then can affect a person's ability to smell and help with weight loss.
Dr. Peng said that the smaller size of the stomach might not be the factor that leads to weight loss. Instead, it is more likely because there was a reset to the gut-brain pathway when the stomach was cut.
