This Weird Trick Will Stop You From Eating Too Much Junk Food

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Sometimes it’s hard to tell how much we’re snacking. And it becomes problematic because it’s just so easy to lose track of how often we do this. Whether we’re stressed, or angry, or even celebrating a personal win, it seems like there’s always the perfect occasion for sugar and calories.

And hey — treating yourself (in moderation) is perfectly fine. But when you overdo it, it could lead to health issues (which a doctor would know the extent of — not us). With that in mind: a new trick was just revealed that might help you curb your bad junk food habit for good. And, not going to lie, it’s… a little strange. Maybe even too good to be true?

The Journal of Marketing Research just posted a new study that claims that people can redirect their appetite for junk food simply by smelling it for approximately two minutes.

Yes. Seriously.

So instead of diving into that giant bowl of Doritos, just holding it under your nose may give you the same satisfaction. And here’s the best part — there’s no dietary danger to smelling something. (If there was, we’d all be in trouble after going to a restaurant.)

Here’s how the study worked.

Test groups smelled wonderful scents like cookies and pizza right before getting to choose their own meal. Thanks to a nebulizer, smells easily filled up rooms like cafeterias and grocery stores. From there, their food choices were monitored. And let’s just say the results were somewhat counterintuitive.

In one room of 900 that purposely had the scent of pizza wafted throughout, 21% of people went on to purchase unhealthy foods.

If you think that’s a lot, just know that around 40% of people grabbed unhealthy stuff after an apple smell took over the room. That’s a gigantic jump.

First thought is, do they sell these nebulizers?

I’d love for my workspace to smell like pizza. But secondly, could this change snacking forever?

It makes a lot of sense. Smell is a huge part of the eating experience.

So by smelling junk food, we’d obviously get some satisfaction from that alone. The problem is, do we as humans have the willpower to sniff but not snack?

If you already have the snacks in your home, it’s worth a shot.

Especially since “stop snacking” is a New Year’s resolution for so many of us, year after year, and this year is still pretty fresh.

My New Year's resolution was to stop snacking after 10 p.m. and so far that's really not going well..
— Taylor Imus-Williams (@tayim) January 15, 2013

Might as well try everything you can, right?

You may also find that sniffing those homemade cookies for two minutes may bring some disappointment when you actually eat one.

Everyone knows the best part about junk food is that very first bite, and if your brain has been tricked into thinking you’ve taken it already, you may lose some of the satisfaction.