Characteristics Of The Sense Of Smell.

Smell is vital for survival of most humans and animals as it enables them to track food and water, find a mate and even communicate. 

Although our sense of smell is not as acute as other animals we know that humans are able to detect up to 10,000 different odor molecules.

Smell plays a key role in our ability to enjoy food.However, many people suffer from a lost, impaired or distorted sense of smell, and this can affect both their health and quality of life.

The studies have shows that 39 percent of people with severe smell disorders have a significantly increased incidence of weight loss, which can negatively impact their health.

A recently published study explains how foods with different basic tastes, textures and mouthfeel can increase a person's enjoyment. 

When a food smell released in the oral cavity is not intercepted by the smell receptors in the nose, it is possible to compensate by focusing on other sensory inputs.

In other words, the other senses can enhance the experience of eating so the patient gains greater food satisfaction, a better multisensory food experience and an improved quality of life.

Dried fruits, chilli, menthol and rapeseed oil as good food options for people who have a distorted sense of smell and taste. 

When eating these foods, the mouthfeel helps provide sensory stimuli when the sense of smell fails.

People with a distorted sense of smell in particular should avoid coffee, mushrooms, butter, ginger, black pepper and toasted bread, as these foods generally provide significantly less pleasure. This is due to a combination of a higher incidence of distorted smell detection and the fact that some of these foods strongly stimulate the other chemical senses, which becomes unpleasant when aroma is not present.

Taste is a multi-sensory process where each sense contributes with different notes that together result in a complex symphony that makes us able to identify what we are eating, assess its freshness and edibility, and in the end, provides us with a sense of enjoyment. Few people realise how important a sense of smell is until they lose it. However, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have become even more aware of the importance of smell. Around 65% of the more than 300 million Covid-19 patients worldwide have experienced losing their sense of smell. For more than half of those patients, the loss or distortion may be long term. Fifteen percent of the population has a reduced sense of smell. 

The problem increases with age, and is often related to many well-known diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease and several neurodegenerative diseases.

A significant connection we often don’t make is how our sense of smell is related to our sense of taste. 

Taste and smell are different senses and have their individual receptor organs: the mouth and the nose respectively.

 However, the two are connected through the same airway so that smell and taste combine at the back of the throat to create the perception of flavour. Together they are known as our chemosensory system or the chemical senses. 

This is why when people have a cold, they often lose their appetite. The lowered ability to enjoy a meal that one can’t taste or appreciate is what results in this.

"Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert."

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