It is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of Cincinnati (USA), who in a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience suggest that ghrelin stimulates the detection of foods rich in calories in our environment through smell, and they connect the perception of these stimuli with the regulation of metabolism and body weight .
" Sniffing – breathing air through the nose repeatedly to smell smells – is the first step in the olfactory process and can increase the ability to detect stimuli," says endocrinologist Jenny Tong, co-author of the study. In their experiments, Tong and his colleagues worked with rats and animals. And they found that humans, after an infusion of ghrelin, were able to detect food much better through smell . Furthermore, the results suggest that since the hormone ghrelin is secreted when the stomach is empty, while we are hungry we detect odors much better .
