闻高脂肪食物气味 或能抑制你的食欲

Looking for a way to satisfy those high-calorie meal cravings? A new study finds sniffing a burger or a pizza for two minutes can stop cravings for junk food.

你是否在寻找一种能够满足自己对高热量餐食渴求的方法？一项新研究发现，对汉堡或披萨闻上两分钟即可消除人们对垃圾食品的渴求。

The study says the scent of food itself can directly satisfy your cravings because the brain doesn't realize the difference in the source of sensory pleasure.

研究指出，食物本身的气味能够直接满足人的需求，因为大脑无法区分感官愉悦的来源。

"Ambient scent can be a powerful tool to resist cravings for indulgent foods," said Dipayan Biswas, a marketing professor at the University of South Florida College of Business.

南佛罗里达大学商学院营销学教授迪帕扬·比斯瓦斯表示：“周遭气味可成为抵御人们渴望纵情大吃的强有力的工具。”

"In fact, subtle sensory stimuli like scents can be more effective in influencing children's and adult's food choices."

“事实上，气味等轻微感官刺激在影响儿童和成年人食物选择方面会更加有效。”

Imagine how this could work in a school canteen or a supermarket: kids or customers could be nudged towards the fresh fruit section after two minutes of taking in the sweet aroma of baked cookies.

想象一下学校食堂或者超市会出现怎样的效果：学生们或者顾客们在享受两分钟烘烤饼干的香甜气味之后，就会到新鲜水果区选择食物。

That's just one example but you can see the possibilities. As Biswas says, it might be a better bet than trying to be too regimental at meal times.

这仅仅是一个例子，但你在现实生活中会看到该情况发生的可能性。就像比斯瓦斯所说的那样，这可能是比吃饭时间进行“严格管制”更好的一种方法。

Using a scent nebulisers at a school canteen and a supermarket -- discreetly disseminating smells like apples, strawberries, pizzas and cookies -- researchers found smells of the more unhealthy foods (pizzas and cookies) made it more likely participants would pick a healthy food.

通过在学校食堂和超市使用气味喷雾器--小心翼翼地散发出苹果、草莓、披萨和饼干的味道--研究人员发现散发出更不健康食物（披萨和饼干）的气味会让参与者更有可能选择健康食品。

At the school canteen in the US, for example, where around 900 kids arrived for lunch, the number of unhealthy items picked fell to 21.43 percent with a pizza smell. That's compared with 36.96 percent for an apple smell and 36.54 percent for no smell at all.

例如，在美国的学校食堂，大约有900名学生前来吃午餐，选择披萨气味不健康食物的学生比例下降21.43%。相比之下，选择苹果气味食物的学生占36.96%，根本闻不到苹果气味的学生占36.54%。

Follow up lab tests matched the original findings, while also showing that a quick sniff of a scent had the opposite effect: those who only smelled cookies briefly were about twice as likely to pick an unhealthy food option as those who experienced the smell for more than two minutes.

接下来的实验室测试与最初发现相符合，同时也表明快速嗅闻食物气味会起到反作用：那些短暂嗅闻饼干气味的测试者，选择不健康食物的概率是闻饼干气味超过两分钟的测试者的两倍。

Using a series of surveys, the study showed that the study participants who were better at recognising the smells were also more likely to be affected by them. It's almost as if a quick smell of something tasty and indulgent primes the brain to taste it, whereas a longer smell is as good as eating it.

通过一系列调查，科学家研究发现，在识别气味方面做得更好的参与者更有可能受到气味的影响。这就像是一种快速闻到某种美味食物，放纵大脑却体验它，然而闻了较长时间之后，就效果就如同吃过该食物一样。

Ultimately, the brain may not be differentiating the source of the sensory pleasure, according to the researchers. For now that's just a hypothesis about what's going on in the brain, but it tallies with previous research that our different senses can influence each other and that the senses of taste and smell are closely linked.

最终，依据研究人员的说法，大脑可能不会区分感官愉悦的来源。目前，这仅是一个关于大脑活动的假设，但它与之前研究相一致，即我们不同的感官可以相互影响，味觉和嗅觉是紧密相连的。

"We propose that this occurs because scents related to an indulgent food satisfy the reward circuitry in the brain, which in turn reduces the urge for actual consumption of indulgent foods," write the researchers.

研究人员写道：“我们认为之所以会出现这种情况，是因为与放纵食物相关的气味满足了大脑中的奖赏机制，而奖赏机制反过来又减少了人们实际食用放任食物的冲动。”

One way the study authors suggest their work could be used is in getting kids to make better choices at meal times at school -- a few minutes of pizza or cookie smells in the queue could have a more positive effects than a long line of posters telling them about the benefits of healthy eating, perhaps.

研究作者认为，通过这项研究可探索一种方法，让孩子们在学校用餐时间选择健康食物，例如：让他们闻几分钟披萨或者饼干的气味，也许这比观看多幅健康饮食海报的效果更好。

And this is an area of science that companies are already exploring – which is why you might notice the smell of something sweet on your next flight.

这正是一些公司正在探索的科学领域，这也是为什么你在下一次飞行旅程中注意美味甜食气味的原因。

"In essence, if reward structures and areas representing craving in the brain can be satisfied with olfactory inputs instead of actual gustatory consumption of unhealthy foods, this can help with fighting food urges," concludes the team.

研究小组总结称：“从本质上讲，如果大脑中代表渴望的奖赏机制和相应区域能够被嗅闻气味所满足，而不是被吞食不健康食物的实际味觉所满足，那么这将有助于人们抵抗对食物的渴望。”