Sniff Your Way to a Healthy Diet

A university in Dijon, France, has found that smells can alter the foods that the brain picks, and that fruity smells will influence the mind to choose fruit.
Psychologists at the University of Bourgogne carried out a study into the subliminal influence smell can have on our dietary choices. 115 men and women took part in the study.
Participants were told they were taking part in an experiment regarding communication whilst eating, and so were unaware of the subliminal suggestions they were exposed to. Having been split into two groups, one group was placed in a normal waiting room, while the other group were sat in a waiting room that had been sprayed with the scent of pears.
Both groups were then presented with a buffet that came with choices between a non-fruit or vegetable starter, main and dessert, and a fruity alternative.
For the starters and mains, there was no major difference between the choices, but for dessert a lot more people from the pear smelling room chose the fruit dessert compared to the group from the normal smelling waiting room.
This shows that there are subliminal signals our brains pick up on and influence our decisions, and may eventually lead to innovative ways of influencing healthy diets.