Studies show that people who were on a diet felt less urge to eat unhealthy foods after simply smelling chocolate.
Imagine a world where simply getting a taste of chocolate can help you stay true to your diet. For some it may be suffering to be eating a salad while smelling the aroma of chocolate, but for others it may be a necessary evil. After all, following a diet to lose weight is not easy and not all of us manage to follow it through to the end.
An international team of scientists carried out five different studies, involving hundreds of university students, to see if the smell could have an impact on temptation.
In one study, participants were asked to wear t-shirts scented with chocolate essence oil and watch a nature video. Then they were asked to imagine a bowl of chocolate ice cream being served and indicate how much they would like to eat.
Those who were exposed to the smell of chocolate longer — for five minutes compared to one minute or none — they said they wanted to eat less ice creamwrite the daily mail.
In another study, participants watched a nature video before being shown pictures of nature. chips, fruit salad, chocolate ice cream or a granola bar with chocolate chips.
Afterwards, the volunteers were exposed to a chocolate scent and asked to rate how much they would like to eat each food on a scale of 0 to 100. Those exposed to the chocolate scent were less likely to want to eat chocolate ice cream or chips – the least healthy foods.
As for people who were on a diet, the results showed that they had better self-control after smelling the chocolate.
“Our findings suggest that dieters may end up eating less when they are exposed to an indulgent smell for an extended period of time,” says the paper’s lead author, Ernest Baskin.
“In other words, smell Cinnamon Rolls can counter-intuitively make dieters buy less cinnamon rolls“added Baskin.
When people in bliss smell something indulgent, like chocolate, it subconsciously reminds them of that goal and therefore “they are likely to consume or buy less”suggests the author.
Daniel Costa, ZAP // 
