Who doesn’t love to smell food before you eat it? Just imagine a grilling a steak on the barbecue and that delicious barbecue flavor!

Well, according to a recent article, smelling food, at least for mice, leads to more weight gain. In this study mice were fed a fatty diet. Those that could smell gained twice as much weight as those couldn’t.

Even worse, those mice that were found to be “super smellers” with high performing smell receptors gained even more weight.

Oh my God! Does this mean that sommeliers or those wine tasters, who are born with exceptional taste and smelling abilities, are doomed to an overweight existence? What about those of us who love smelling those fresh donuts before eating them?

If these results are also true in humans, then the flip side of the coin might hold: Suppose there were a way say through medications, to modify our sense of smell so that we could still smell, but the pathway to smelling something and weight gain could be blocked. Then we could have our cake and eat it too (pun intended). Even better, if that pathway were totally blocked, then the medication could even become an alternative to gastric bypass surgery!

Don’t hold your breath and don’t plug your nose before eating. There is still much research to be completed before this idea of smell modification and weight loss becomes a reality.