They say “we eat with our eyes.” Certainly, seeing our food is part of enjoying it—such as admiring a lovely entrée before eating it. That’s why restaurants work hard to make food look so enticing.
Olives have smell, taste, touch and sight to entice us.
Of course, other senses are at play when it comes to food: the sizzle of bacon as it fries or the feel of silky fuzz on a peach, or the slippery feel of olives (like those in the photo) on your tongue. Lately, I’ve been reading that we might not be fully aware of another one of our senses—smell.
THE NOSE KNOWS
Your nose has more to do with eating than you might think.
Who hasn’t walked through a shopping mall and been enticed by the aroma of cinnamon rolls…or soft pretzels…or chocolate chip cookies—without even seeing them? All the more maddening since they’re not gluten-free! We read about realtors who strategically place aromatic items in for-sale houses to entice potential buyers. Citrus, vanilla, cedar, lavender, or something baking in the oven—such as bread or cookies—is common.
Mireille Guiliano says in her book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, that we really only need 3 bites of a food to satisfy our sense of taste. After that, our taste buds adjust to that particular taste and now we’re just eating mindlessly rather than mindfully. If you practice her approach, portion control automatically kicks in as well—which might be a good thing!
But think of what our sense of smell does for us? The aroma of beef stew cooking on the stove; a chocolate cake in the oven, coffee brewing in the morning, or freshly-popped popcorn. These are just a few of life’s aromatic joys. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that shoppers spend significantly more money in home-décor stores that are scented with pure orange, rather than a blend of orange, basil, and green tea.
TWO SETS OF NOSTRILS?
Apparently, our bodies have two sets of nostrils: the ones on our face and another set at the back of the mouth that leads up to the nasal passage. When you chew food, some of the airborne molecules in your mouth go through this internal nose up to the brain, which processes the odors of what you are eating, according to a Wall Street Journal article “Uncork the Nose’s Secret Powers.” Apparently, if you hold your nose and put chocolate in your mouth, you won’t taste the chocolate! How sad! Imagine life without the joy of chocolate!
The role of smell may also explain why food tastes “off” when we have a cold or sinus infection. If you can’t smell your food, your taste is diminished as well.
Sadly, however, that sense of smell that gives us so much pleasure wanes as we age. In fact, we experience a detectable loss by the time we’re in our thirties, says that same Wall Street Journal. By the time we reach 60, half of us have a reduced sense of smell. By age 80, that figure climbs to three-fourths. Experts think that our sense of smell helps us avoid eating spoiled food, but it may also “warm up” the digestion process and, in the end, help us metabolize and digest our food more efficiently.
HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR SENSE OF SMELL
[1] Place chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream, side by side. (For the purpose of scientific research, of course!!) Close your eyes and taste each one. If you can differentiate between the two—without seeing them—your sense of smell is normal.
[2] Or, hold a cotton ball soaked in alcohol just beyond your chin and inhale. If you can’t smell it, your sense of smell is weakened.
[3] People can detect a rose fragrance—or onion or garlic— long after they can no longer detect other smells. Not sure why that is.
[4] Our sense of smell is most acute in humid, rather than dry climates. In fact, it is sharpest when just stepping out of the shower.
[5] When drinking coffee or tea, smell it before drinking it. Do the same with food. Take 3 shallow sniffs rather than one big one—especially if you sample several different things in a short time—so your nose doesn’t get tired. Doing this regularly can enhance your sense of smell over time by sparking different receptors in the nose.
[6] You can train your nose over time. Put small amounts of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, celery, carrot, pencil shavings (yes you read that correctly—it provides a cedar note) in tiny jars. Each day, sniff them (without peeking) to see if you can identify them. In fact, experts recommend doing this 4 to 6 times a day, but that seems a little excessive to me!!
[7] To taste your food more fully, hold it in your mouth for a few extra seconds and breathe out through your nose so that all of the aromas have to travel through your inner nostrils. (This advice from the new book, Gulp by Mary Roach, which I am just starting to read.)
[8] Finally, avoid cigarette smoke, pollution, cleansers, and paint because they compromise your sense of smell.
As for me, I plan to take more time to actually smell the world around me, including my food. I will continue to enjoy that first cup of coffee in the morning, the smell of cinnamon, chocolate cookies baking in the oven, and the yeasty scent of bread dough. What are your favorite smells?
