Abstract
We are surrounded by sensory food cues, such as odors, that may trigger (un)conscious decisions and even lead to (over)eating, it is therefore crucial to better understand the effect of food odors on behavioral responses. Food odor exposure has been shown to enhance appetite for food products with similar properties: sensory-specific appetite. This suggests that based on previous encounters with foods, we have learned to detect the nutritional content of foods, through our sense of smell. We investigated the influence of aware exposure of macronutrient-related odors on various measures of eating behavior, in a cross-over intervention study. Thirty two normal-weight healthy and unrestrained Dutch females took part in five test sessions. On each test session, they were exposed to one of five conditions (active smelling of clearly noticeable odors representing food high in carbohydrates, protein, and fat, low in calories, and a no-odor condition for 3-min) and assessed on specific appetite, food preferences and intake. Odor exposure increased congruent appetite after protein-related odor exposure. Similarly, protein-related odor exposure influenced the liking for protein foods and the preference ranking for savory products. However, food intake was not affected by smelling congruent food odors. Together this indicates that exposure to (aware) food odors may mostly influence appetite, but does not impact subsequent food intake. Moreover, appetite seems to be triggered by taste qualities rather than macronutrient information of the food, as signaled by olfactory cues. Future studies should investigate the role of awareness in more detail, to fully understand how odors might be used to steer people towards healthier food choices.
Highlights
Living in an obesogenic environment, we are surrounded by food cues that may triggerconscious decisions and induce us toeat (Bellisle, 2003; Boesveldt & de Graaf, 2017; King, 2013)
Inclusion criteria consisted of: a normal sense of smell (scoring ≥12 on the 16 items Sniffin’ Sticks odor identification test (Oleszkiewicz, Schriever, Croy, Hähner, & Hummel, 2019)); self-reported normal sense of taste; being an unrestrained eater, on the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, DEBQ; correct identification of the used odors by means of a multiple forced-choice task; odor-label association (‘How well do you think this smell corresponds to [specific label]?’) and liking for the food odors and products used in the study (> 40 on 100 mm visual analog scale (VAS))
The effect of odor category was significant F(3,1508) = 9.52, p < 0.0001, and there was a significant interaction between odor category and congruency, (F(3,1494) = 9.96, p < 0.0001, Fig. 2, mixed model included odor familiarity, liking of the food product and specific appetite before odor exposure as covariates)
Summary
Living in an obesogenic environment, we are surrounded by food (odor) cues that may trigger (un)conscious decisions and induce us to (over)eat (Bellisle, 2003; Boesveldt & de Graaf, 2017; King, 2013). Zoon et al replicated these findings, and showed that actively smelling high-calorie odors could increase appetite for high-calorie food and decrease appetite for low-calorie food, and vice versa (Zoon et al, 2016) Taken together, it seems that based on previous experiences, we have learned that food odor cues may convey information related to the taste quality or caloric content of the associated food. It seems that based on previous experiences, we have learned that food odor cues may convey information related to the taste quality or caloric content of the associated food This information may even signal the composition of the food in terms of macronutrient content and thereby induce congruent appetite to facilitate specific physiological responses and potentially steer towards congruent actual food intake
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