Author: Dean Rouseberg
Time for reading: ~1
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
Overweight people have a highly developed sense of smell when it comes to food ...
Overweight people have a highly developed sense of food, according to a study by researchers at the University of Portsmouth. The results could explain the difficulties some people have in maintaining a beautiful figure.
Experts have found that the part of the brain that processes odor information is also connected to food centers.
In the UK, a quarter of adults are overweight. Doctors fear that the trend will increase in the future. And while the most common causes are a lot of food and little exercise, scientists are looking for the main factors that drive the obesity epidemic. To this end, Dr. Lorenzo Staffort and his team are conducting a study that will explain whether the cause could be a defect in the sense of smell.
The team recruited 64 volunteers who took part in a series of experiments testing their sense of food. The study found that people are more sensitive to the smell of food after eating than when they are hungry.
Scientists still can't explain why this feature is due, but they are adamant that overweight people have a more developed sense of smell than weaker people, especially after eating.
The researchers hope that their research could give a new direction in the search for appropriate therapy for obese people.