Boosting the flavor of your food with calorie-free seasonings and sweeteners may help you feel fuller faster and decrease the amount you eat, according to a U.S. study that suggests this may be a new way to help people lose weight.

Sensa tastants is developed by Dr. Alan Hirsch, a board certified neurologist and founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation.

The way the program is supposed to work is by stimulating both the sense of taste and smell simultaneously.  The senses work together to ’stimulate an area of the brain called the “satiety center,”‘ - this helps to signal to your body the feeling of fullness. Thus by enhancing the flavors of your food, you will eat less since your body will intuitively know when to stop.

A study was recently done which included close to 2,500 overweight or obese people, They were asked to drizzle a variety of tastants on their food before eating their meals. There were two types of crystals to use - their were salt-free crystals which were to be applied to salty foods and sugar-free crystals to be used on sweet or neurtral tasting foods. The flavors of the crystals were unknown to those involved in the study other than the fact that the crystals were either salty or sweet. The hidden flavors of the salty tastants were cheddar cheese, onion, horseradish, ranch dressing, taco, and parmesan. The sweet tastants flavors were composed of cocoa, spearmint, banana, strawberry, raspberry and malt.

A control group of 100 people didn’t use tastants. Both groups continued their normal behavior, ie they maintained their same exercise habits during the study.

At the beginning of the research study, the treatment group had an average weight of 208 pounds and an average body mass index (BMI) of 34. After a six month perioud of using the tastants, those in the treatment group averaged a loss of 30.5 pounds and an average decrease of five points in their BMI.

The average weight loss in the control group was approximtately 2 pounds, with an average decrease in BMI of .3.

The findings were to be presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

According to Dr. Hirsch there are several explanations as to why the people in the treatment group may have lost more weight than those in the control group. One possible reason is because the tastants made those in the treatment group feel full faster. As a result they ended up eating less.

Another possibility is that the tastants improved the flavor of healthy food that is considered bland in taste such as tofu, vegetables, etc. This woud result in healthier eating habits which would mean eating of foods that are less calories, helping to promote weight loss.

While not commercially available just yet, Hirsch is gearing up to sell his product, called Sensa. A 1 month supply of flavorings will cost approximately 50 US dollars.

To learn more about Sensa and how it works, visit TrySensa.
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