One of the most powerful Weight loss tools: Sense of Smell

Smells have an uncanny power to move us. A whiff of pipe tobacco, freshly brewed coffee, or a long-forgotten personal scent can instantly conjure up events and emotions from the past. Many writers and artists have marvelled at the haunting quality of such memories.

For the love of a Madeleine

"An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses...with no suggestion of its origin...

"Suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was of a little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings...my Aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea....Immediately the old gray house on the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set...and the entire town, with its people and houses, gardens, church, and surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being from my cup of tea."

Just seeing the madeleine had not brought back these memories, Proust noted. He needed to taste and smell it. "When nothing else subsists from the past," he wrote, "after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered...the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls...bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory."

Proust mentions both taste and smell—and rightly so, because most of the flavour of food comes from its aroma, which wafts up the nostrils to cells in the nose and the back of the mouth.

Scent is the most enduring of our senses. It has the power to alter our emotions and transport us to another place and time.

Why is sense of smell such a powerful weight loss tool?

The limbic system is connected to areas of the brain linked to memory, breathing, and blood circulation, as well as the endocrine glands which regulate hormone levels in the body.

Scent can affect your mood, your memory, in fact your entire sense of well-being.

In 1937 a French chemist, Dr. Rene-Maurice Gattefosse discovered the influential healing effect of essential oils purely by accident.

One day, while he was working in his lab, Gattefosse burned his hand and immediately immersed it in the nearest liquid available, pure essential lavender oil. The oil took away the redness and healed the burn with startling speed. Gattefosse was so impressed that he started to research the healing properties of other essential oils, and called he resulting science aromatherapy.

Gattefosse conducted experiments with essential oils on wounded soldiers during World War 1. He found that essential oils were antiseptics that detoxified better than the chemical compounds that were currently being used.

In France today, aromatherapy is widespread and is routinely prescribed by physicians. Pharmacies sell remedies related to aromatherapy alongside conventional medicine. In England and Germany, essential oils are mostly used for their calming effects, as sleep inducers and as respiratory medications.

What emotions can scents evoke?

You can enhance your self-hypnosis session by burning a scented candle, or inhaling a few drops of essential oil sprinkled on a pillow.

Choose the flavour according to the effect you want. Citrus if you want to energise and encourage, lavender if you want to relax, mint if you need mental stimulation...the possibilities are endless.

You can also use a scent that conjures up certain memories and feeling for you personally, like freshly baked bread does for me. These days you can buy every possible smell in a bottle. Yes, including that of chocolate!

You can also use scents directly, to stimulate or suppress your appetite.

Dr. Hirsch wanted to see if smelling pleasant food aromas would help reduce appetite and food cravings in people, thereby helping them lose weight by reducing their food intake. Subjects were given plastic nasal inhalers scented with banana, green apple and peppermint. They sniffed the inhalers before, during and between meals. They recorded how often they sniffed. It was found that those who sniffed more frequently lost weight faster than those who did not.

Dr. Hirsch explained that "Smells have a direct effect on the satiety centre in the brain, which is the area that tells your body when you've had enough to eat." Continual exposure to pleasant food aromas indicates to the brain that the body is satisfied and does not need to eat.

The study of the effect of our sense of smell on our ability to sustain weight loss is in its infancy. You will have to experiment. Start by being aware of its effect, and avoid smells that increase your appetite, either directly of via a pleasant memory.

Or use two weight loss tools together: Combine your sense of smell with your sense of taste...

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. ~Author Unknown

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