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15th May 2019
11:57am BST
Yes, even just smelling food before we eat it could cause us to gain weight.
Research carried out by the University of California, Berkeley, showed that our sense of smell could actually affect how our bodies process calories.
The study was conducted using a group of obese mice, some of which had their sense of smell cut off using gene therapy. Those mice still ate the same high-calorie food as the others but ended up losing weight.
The mice that had their sense of smell heightened gained the most weight of the group.
The researchers believe that the mice being able to smell the food before they ate it could have caused their bodies to store the fat instead of burning it off.
Author of the study, professor of molecular and cell biology Andrew Dillin, says that weight gain isn't just measured in the amount of calories we take in, but in the way these calories are perceived by our bodies.
He also says that the study could be beneficial to those who struggle to lose weight.
“If we can validate this in humans, perhaps we can actually make a drug that doesn’t interfere with smell but still blocks that metabolic circuitry. That would be amazing.”
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