Don't smell the food

August 2, 2017 3:37 PM

Dietary restriction has been shown to extend lifespan in a number of species. But scientists have learned that there's one caveat: Smelling the food you're eating reduces the effect, at least if you're a fly. Using a worm model, they've now found a pathway by which smelling induces the insulin-like growth factor pathway that's involved in aging.
posted by clawsoon (25 comments total)

This is why we can't have nice smells.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:43 PM on August 2, 2017 [8 favorites]

Suddenly, nasalectomies become all the rage.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:49 PM on August 2, 2017

I've given it some thought and I'd rather eat well and die a bit earlier. It's not like I'm going to have pension or a national health care system when I'm 65…
posted by LMGM at 3:51 PM on August 2, 2017 [12 favorites]

Yeah, the caloric-restriction-for-an-extended-lifespan thing only makes sense to me if it's guaranteed that those extra years would get me to the Singularity, at which point I can upload my mind and simulate sumptuous feasts every day for eternity.
posted by ejs at 4:09 PM on August 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'd rather have my currently-attainable sumptuous feasts now, over some dubious and simulated e-meal in the far future. Roast bird in the hand, and all that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:28 PM on August 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Aw come on.
posted by penduluum at 4:28 PM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Somehow a calorie restricted regimen sounds even less appealing:

"you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the [tasteless and reduced calorie food] touches your lips."
posted by MengerSponge at 4:29 PM on August 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well, the calorie-restricted diet may get you to the point where being infused with the blood of teenagers rejuvenates you long enough to create your Singularity over the bones of the young and poor.

I'm not sure if this is the setting of a YA dystopia, or Thiel's actual plans. Maybe north.
posted by happyroach at 4:34 PM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

every new "if you don't stop doing this you will dIE SOONER" thing just makes me more determined to do the thing doubly aggressively

i just sniffed a piece of pizza so hard i got hot grease in my nose and i'll do it again and no one can stop me
posted by poffin boffin at 4:42 PM on August 2, 2017 [21 favorites]

smelling induces the insulin-like growth factor pathway that's involved in aging

So... science has proved that the reason I'm so damned old is that... I smell? Now come on, science! That's just mean.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:44 PM on August 2, 2017

Now I want pizza. Though I'd ingest it in the typical way and spare my nasal passages.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:47 PM on August 2, 2017

Roast bird in the hand, and all that.

You haven't lived until you've tried Roko's Roast Basilisk.
posted by ejs at 4:56 PM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't have a very good sense of smell due to my allergies. I suppose I don't need to lament that anymore.
posted by orange swan at 4:58 PM on August 2, 2017

scientists conclusively prove that smashing yourself in the balls with a hammer every day extends the life of men by as much as five years
posted by indubitable at 5:11 PM on August 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

but only if you use a ballpeen hammer
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:20 PM on August 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

I only read Gisele-Galoustian's article, but it seems that researchers could study the effect in humans who have lost their sense of smell, and see , with other variables ruled out compared with similar peers with their sense of smell intact, if their lives on average are significantly longer to study the effect in humans.

I also remember in high school my notoriously skinny friend Billy said "there's fat in the air there" going through the cookie aisle in the grocery store. I guess he could have been technically right.
posted by shortyJBot at 5:47 PM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have almost no sense of smell, which kinda sucks. On the other hand, people often comment that I look younger than I am. Smell the roses while you can, suckers!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:57 PM on August 2, 2017

"Ni'll nib do uh hundwid!"
posted by leotrotsky at 6:13 PM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

FWIW, fasting works as well as caloric restriction and is 10x easier. Google Dr. Jason Fung or Obesity Code.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:18 PM on August 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'll sign up for the placebo condition of this research where I get to smell all the delicious.
posted by srboisvert at 6:37 PM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I wonder if this might involve one of the mechanisms by which Seth Robert's "Shangri-La Diet" hack worked
posted by Auden at 9:20 PM on August 2, 2017

Hmm. I have an extremely poor sense of smell. I am also fat, so clearly have not managed much in the way of caloric restriction. Am I getting some level of benefit from not smelling my food, or am I in the lose-lose spot of aging normally/rapidly without getting to enjoy my food?
posted by Four Ds at 8:38 AM on August 3, 2017

What is the meaning of life?
posted by amtho at 10:17 AM on August 3, 2017

Four Ds: Hmm. I have an extremely poor sense of smell. I am also fat, so clearly have not managed much in the way of caloric restriction. Am I getting some level of benefit from not smelling my food, or am I in the lose-lose spot of aging normally/rapidly without getting to enjoy my food?

If you're not a fruit fly or a worm, none of this may apply to you - the smell science hasn't been done on other species, as far as I know. But if you are, the study about fruit flies found that a mutation which blocked smelling led to longer lifespans, without any caloric restriction.
posted by clawsoon at 10:25 AM on August 3, 2017

What is the meaning of life?

To enjoy your food, to smell the odors wafting before you, and to hear the adulations of the diners.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:47 AM on August 3, 2017 [3 favorites]