ISTOCK, ARTISTEER
Most of us are familiar with the role of smell in our dining habits—that basket of freshly baked cookies is usually much harder to resist than a plate of odorless carrot sticks, and the taste of food is strongly tied to its aroma. But animals’ sense of smell is even more intricately linked with eating and metabolism. Prior studies have shown that, in humans, fasting enhances olfactory sensitivity, while satiety reduces it. And a new study, published today (July 5) in Cell Metabolism, suggests that, at least in mice, this link may go even further—animals engineered to lack a sense of smell gained less weight and burned more fat than their unaltered counterparts.
This difference in weight gain was almost entirely due to alterations in ...
