Fooling brain into feeling full

Sprinkling flavor enhancing crystals on food before it is eaten can help individuals lose weight, according to a study conducted by Alan Hirsch, a neurologist and psychiatrist who is director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Chicago. On average, the 92 overweight volunteers who completed the study lost 34 pounds over six months by being able to eat less of the foods they already enjoy. Hirsch explains that this is not a diet and that the crystals simply help people limit the amount of food they eat.

The premise of the study suggests that, by enhancing the taste of food, the brain is fooled into believing more has been ingested than actually has--making the person feel full faster. "After more than 20 years of research, our studies have confirmed that your sense of taste actually has more to do with how much you eat than any other factor in the body," Hirsch states.

"Most believe that feeling satisfied is a mechanism that's centered in the stomach, but, in reality, you feel full or satisfied because of a special mechanism in your brain that is stimulated when you taste specific flavors. The brain actually correlates the amount of food that you have eaten with the amount of taste you perceive."

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