ScienceShot: Strong Smells = Small Bites  20 March 2012 8:02 pm
Junus Tahitu  "There's always room for Jell-O," went a famous ad
campaign. But would there be as much room if you smelled the
Jell-O first? Researchers hooked 10 adult study participants up
to a device that allowed them to control, via a button, the
amount of vanilla pudding squirted into their mouths through a
tube. The people—who were prescreened to like the taste of
vanilla pudding but didn't know what the experiment was
testing—also had a tube that delivered pudding-like smells to
their noses (as seen above). When the researchers increased the
intensity of the smell, the participants took mouthfuls of
pudding that were 5% to 10% smaller. (The team didn't measure
total food consumption.) Bite size has previously been linked to
how full a person is, how much they like a food, and salt
content of a meal. In addition, smaller bite sizes can decrease
the overall amount someone eats. Understanding how a person
subconsciously decides how big a bite