The smell of a rich dessert can make your mouthwater. But can an extra helping of its smell help you eat less?
一顿丰盛的餐后甜点的浓郁香味让人口水直流。但是额外的香味能让你吃得少一点吗?
To find out, researchers enlisted 10 adults, lots of vanilla custard and zero spoons—because the custard was squeezed directly into each subject's mouth, in amounts the subject controlled. With each taste, subjects also got a blast of the custard aroma puffed into the back part of their nose.
为了找到答案,研究人员找到10位成年人,准备了很多香草乳蛋糕但没有勺子——因为乳蛋糕可以直接被实验对象一口吃掉,在数量上能更好掌控。每吃一口,实验对象还能接受到一阵乳蛋糕香气,喷到他们的鼻子后部。
And when subjects smelled a stronger custard aroma, they took smaller samples than when the scent was weaker or imperceptible. The findings are in the journal Flavour. [Rene de Wijk et al., "Food Aroma Affects Bite Size," link to come.]
当实验对象闻到更强烈的乳蛋糕香味,他们会拿小一些的蛋糕,相比于闻到的气味比较弱或觉察不到的时候。这个发现被刊登到了杂志《味道》中。
Why the smaller portions? The stronger aroma might signal to the brain that the food is richer and higher in calories—thus more filling. But regardless of mechanism, the researchers suggest that making food more aromatic might induce people to take smaller mouthfuls. And such smaller bites have been shown to help people feel fuller faster and eat less overall.
为什么选择小一点的蛋糕?更强烈的香味可能给大脑传递了一种信号,告诉它这种食物更加油腻,卡路里含量更高——所以更加容易让人吃饱。但是除了身体机理,研究者还表示把食物做得香气十足可能会引诱人们每口吃得少一些。小口吃东西已经被证明可以帮助人们更快产生饱足感并且减少饮食摄入总量。
A whiff of a madeleine prompted Proust to remember an entire life. But many people would be grateful if it just helped them lose a few pounds.
一阵玛德琳蛋糕的香气让普鲁斯特回想起了他的一生。但是很多人仅仅因为食物香味能让我们减少几磅就能感到愉快。