The New York Times published a piece on various scented “weight loss” or “appetite suppressant” products this week: A Slimmer You May Be a Whiff Away. These products purport to reduce hunger, or help you feel satisfied for longer.
But, is there any science behind these claims?The article quotes a couple of studies by Dr Hirsch, “a neurologist, psychiatrist and the founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago”. His study of 3,193 patients, had them inhaling an aromatic scent whenever they felt hungry. He says that they lost an average of 5lbs a month – a weight loss rate that many dieters would be very happy with!
A later study by Dr Hirsch involved 1,436 patients and scent granules later marketed as Sensa. Again, there was an average weight loss of around 5lbs per month.
If you’ve ever had a heavy cold with a bunged-up nose, you’ll probably have experienced how different things taste when you can’t smell! There clearly is a link between our sense of taste and our sense of smell. So, Dr Hirsch’s Sensa and other similar products on the market, could be helping people lose weight. But, the science behind them remains uncertain.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Richard Doty, director of the Smell and Taste Center in their Medical Center, explained that:
There’s been a theory around for a number of years that if you saturate your sensory system that you’ll not be as hungry. There needs to be more research done.
I wondered on reading about this, whether the impressive weight-loss effect was not due to the smells themselves, but more to do with the habit of stopping and taking action other than eating when the urge to snack or eat arose.
Perhaps those few seconds inhaling a scent gave patients a mental breathing space to reconsider whether they wanted to eat or not. The reminder that they were trying to lose weight may also have been enough to encourage them not to go back for seconds.
You could establish a similar habit for yourself without forking out for pricy products. How about always going for a ten minute walk before you snack on anything? Or writing down everything you eat before you eat it?
I won’t be rushing out to buy any weird and wonderful smells just yet, but I will be thinking about how to eat more consciously.
I put lavender and peppermint oil on my wrists and
when I felt hungry I smelled my wrist and I felt more calm and no hungry. It kept me from having popcorn at the
movies, which never happens.
Interesting! But I guess you should also share what are the side effects in using this stuff.If there is..
I have heard this theory before. One suggestion I have heard and tried myself is to light some incense abuot an hour or two before bed – when dinner is wearing off and I want to go looking for a little something. Having the smell of incense in the air has made food seem less desirable.
I’ve heard this suggested in fitness magazines, too — both Sensa (in Women’s Health) and the act of buying choclolate- or vanilla-scented candles. Regardless, this is an interesting take on the idea — that just stopping to do ANYTHING before eating is smart. Mindful eating sure is sensible.
I bet a lot of people would actually buy it! Anyway, isn’t that what cigarettes are supposed to do?
already been done- nose plugs- a guy wrote a whole diet book using “nose clipping” as its called the Shangri-la diet. works, but you look like funny doing it.
It sounds like a scam to me. What kinds of scents are they putting in these granules? I could see maybe if the scents were not very food-related, like vanilla or lavender or something that they could possibly have some appetite suppressing qualities, but if the granules smell like, say, a grilled steak, wouldn’t they maybe cause people to eat more? Seems like a way for some company out there to get rich off of fat people that want a quick fix to lose the weight.
Scent granules? Another weight loss product for lazy people.
My hubby got his tonsils removed and it killed his taste buds for 6 months. He lost a lot of weight because everything tasted like cardboard. So let’s just invent a product that kills taste buds, okay?
I don’t think this would work for me. I would want the food that matches the smell!
I find other ways to get around this & will stick to that… keeping busy with other things, drinking some water, eating my small meals all day so I don’t get too hungry & more. Hey if it works for some, more power to them!
Many ideas like this have a placebo effect – that is, they work, but not in the way suggested by the researcher.
Your ideas for going for a walk before eating or writing down everything before you eat it are interesting, and may work using the same principles. Similar ideas I have seen include taking 10 deep breaths, or tapping your fingers on a desk, one at a time, with one second intervals. Both distraction techniques that also provide thinking time which may be enough to change your mind about eating.