Strong smells help people take smaller bites

A new study came out suggesting that foods that have a strong smell help people take smaller bites of food.  Nature wrote a blog post about it which is how I came across the study.  Researchers from the Netherlands pumped vanilla custard into people's mouths and pumped different smells into their noses at the same time.  The higher the intensity of the smell, the smaller the bite.  Eventually, they hope to design foods with intense smells to trigger people to take smaller bites.

[Photo taken from Photo-Dictionary.com]

The best part was this study was published in a recent journal called Flavour which from what I can tell was launched just this month!  How exciting!  They describe it as a "peer-reviewed, open access, online journal that publishes interdisciplinary articles on flavour, its generation and perception, and its influence on behaviour and nutrition. We seek articles on the psychophysical, psychological and chemical aspects of flavour as well as those taking brain imaging approaches. We take flavour to be the experience of eating food as mediated through all the senses. Thus we welcome articles that deal with not only taste and aroma, but also chemesthesis, texture and all the senses as they relate to the perception of flavour. "

They hope to make the journal accessible to scientists as well as chefs and nutritionists.  I will definitely add it to my list of journals to read.