Why do certain foods smell good to us?
New research by psychology professor Don Katz and his lab suggests it has a lot more to do with what happens in our mouths than commonly thought.
It turns out that we don’t inhale the scent of food and decide we like its smell. First, we have to eat it.
— Read more at Your mouth helps you smell tasty foods at Brandeis NOW.
Fascinating!
I wonder how well the retro nasal system is represented in humans. Maybe it helps explain why neck radiation and chemo sometimes cause people to find food extremely tasteless when it ought to smell just the same?
I was thinking of an acquaintance of mine who claims he does not have a sense of smell, but that he can taste food. It didn’t make sense to me if you assume that tasting food is essentially smelling it, but if they are processed differently, then it does make sense.
Whoa, did he ever have a sense of smell? Now I wonder about his experience of food…