New York, July 9 (IANS): The ability to vividly imagine the smell of popcorn, freshly baked cookies and even non-food odours is greater in obese adults, says a study led by an Indian-origin researcher.
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If you can recall it intensely, you might be in danger of becoming overweight.
Fat people of course, tend to have a more refined smell than normal weight people do, therefore it is seen as impossible for an overweight person to easily refuse a night out in town, which can bring them face to face with a perfect slice of pizza, a KFC bucket, candies and many more delights that are eye-catching. Different people are believed to have different abilities in imagining the aroma of all the foods, be it a chocolate, baked bread or roses.
“People who were obese (had higher BMIs) were better able to imagine odors – both food and nonfood odors”, Patel told Live Science in an email.
The study was based on Kavanagh’s Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire, which suggests that the creation of vivid mental images is linked to the stimulation of cravings.
According to the researchers, identifying such specific triggers for food cravings is an important step in developing effective weight loss behaviors.
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. This study was created to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviour (SSIB) in Denver and it gives us interesting results. Although previous research demonstrates that food cravings occur more often in obese individuals, the role of odor imagery ability in this link had not been examined.
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Now, a new research has found that obese people can image aromas of food more vividly than those who are slim. However, in future studies, scientists should assess people’s imagery ability directly, instead of relying on self-reported measures, Patel said.
