Hormone Helps You Sniff Out Food, Study Finds

WEDNESDAY, April 13 (HealthDay News) — A hormone called ghrelin enhances the nose’s ability to sniff out food, researchers report.

It was already known that ghrelin promotes hunger and fat storage. The new study suggests that the hormone may increase the ability to use smell to detect food and link that input with the body’s natural regulation of metabolism and body weight, said University of Cincinnati scientists.


The study, which included experiments with humans and rats, appears in the April 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. It was led by Dr. Jenny Tong and Dr. Matthias Tschop, both of the university’s endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism division.

“Smell is an integral part of feeding, and mammals frequently rely on smell to locate food and discriminate among food sources. Sniffing is the first stage of the smell process and can enhance odor detection and discrimination,” Tong said in a university news release.

“Other studies have shown that hunger can enhance odor detection and sniffing in animals,” Tschop added in the release. “Since ghrelin is a hunger-inducing stomach hormone that is secreted when the stomach is empty, this hormone pathway may also be responsible for the hunger-induced enhancement of sniffing and odor detection.”

The researchers plan further research to identify the exact molecular pathways through which ghrelin affects sniff behavior.

More information

The U.K.-based Social Issues Research Center has more about the sense of smell.

— Robert Preidt

SOURCE: University of Cincinnati, news release, April 12, 2011

Last Updated: April 13, 2011

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

‘Organic’ Label Seems to Make Food Taste Better

SUNDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) — An “organic” label on foods is enough to make people believe the food items are healthier and tastier, new research suggests.

The study included 144 volunteers who were asked to compare what they believed were conventionally and organically produced chocolate sandwich cookies, plain yogurt and potato chips. All of the products were actually organic, but they were labeled as either “regular” or “organic.”


The participants used a scale of 1 to 9 to rate each of the products on 10 attributes, such as overall taste and perception of fat content. They were also asked to estimate the number of calories in each food item and how much they would be willing to pay for each product.

The investigators found that participants preferred almost all of the taste characteristics of the foods labeled as “organic,” even though they were identical to those labeled as “regular.”

The food items with “organic” labels were also perceived as being lower in fat, higher in fiber, significantly lower in calories and worth more money, according to study author Jenny Wan-chen Lee, a graduate student in Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

In addition, chips and cookies labeled “organic” were judged to be more nutritious than those believed to be non-organic.

Lee conducted the study to test the theory that people are influenced by what is described as “the halo effect,” according to background information in a news release from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. In this case, the researchers set out to see if the “health halo” — the perception that an item that is labeled “organic” is therefore nutritious — would lead people to believe that the “organic” foods tasted better.

The study was slated for presentation Sunday at the Experimental Biology annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., of the American Society for Nutrition.

Because this research was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers nutrition advice.

— Robert Preidt

SOURCE: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, news release, April 10, 2011

Last Updated: April 11, 2011

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.