A recent paper in the professional journal titled Appetite (how appropriately named!) reports that fasting for 24 hours improves nasal chemosensory performance (meaning improves the sense of smell) and food palatability (meaning makes you eat more than usual and enjoy it as well). In other words, changes in smell function can modify feeding behaviour.

— Read more at Why the smell of food makes you hungrier at The Hindu. You can find the original study at PubMed. The Shangri-La Diet involves clipping your nose while eating, and other methods of consuming "flavorless" calories; the Freakonomics blog has a number of articles on the subject.

A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research (PDF) found that subjects presented with a picture of chocolate cake salivated equally when either actually handed something with chocolate cake smell, or encouraged to imagine the chocolate cake smell.

The researchers liken the effect to that of a visualization exercise, and call it “smellization.” (Yes, really.)

As the scientists found, the smellization effect cannot exist in a vacuum; it needs visual triggers. Like, say, a photo of delicious chocolate cake…

— Read more at Imagining The Smell Of Cake Will Actually Make You Buy More Cake, Researchers Find at Consumerist…

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A team of European neuroscientists led by Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux has found that, in mice, THC fits into receptors in the brain's olfactory bulb, significantly increasing the animals' ability to smell food and leading them to eat more of it. A big part of the reason why you might eat more food after using marijuana, the research indicates, is simply that you can smell and taste it more acutely.

— Read more at A Scientific Explanation of How Marijuana Causes the Munchies at the Smithsonian.

Facial recognition, fingerprints and iris scans could soon take a back seat to the newest biometric identification method on the block: body odor. Researchers at Spain’s Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, in collaboration with tech firm IIia Sistemas SL, are developing a system that can verify people by their scent signatures. Recognizable body odor patterns remain constant enough over time to allow people to be identified with an accuracy rate of 85 percent.

— Read more at Body Odor ID: Your New Smelly Password at Discovery News.

Smell-and-taste researcher Dr. Alan Hirsch has long argued that certain aromas can help people lose weight, improve athletic performance or increase sexual arousal. One of his studies found that the odor of buttered popcorn or strawberries helps exercisers burn more calories, another that a whiff of jasmine can improve bowlers’ scores. Hirsch’s boldest and most controversial finding, however — that sprinkling some flavored granules on food can help people lose weight without diet or exercise — is one he can no longer advertise.

— The FTC has reached a settlement with Sensa Weight Loss System. Read more at Sensa doctor’s research fails federal smell test at the Seattle Times.