Junk food Diet can lead to Poor Sense of Smell

A new study suggests that a high-fat and carbohydrate diet can lead to loss of sense of smell.

Previous research has shown that apart from obesity, a poor diet can lead to altered taste perception and even changes brain wiring. The latest study, by Florida State University researchers, shows that diet consisting of junk food affects sense of smell.

The study was conducted on mice models.

Nicolas Thiebaud and colleagues from FSU taught a set of mice an association between a particular odor and a reward (water). Researchers found that mice on high-fat diet were slower to learn the task and found it difficult to differentiate between odors. What's worse is that the mice's sense of smell didn't improve even after they were put on a healthier diet.

"Mice exposed to high-fat diets only had 50 percent of the neurons that could operate to encode odor signals," said Debra Ann Fadool, co-author of the study from FSU, according to a news release.

The study is funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Obesity can cause several health problems such as heart problems, diabetes and even certain cancers. Rates of obesity aren't just high in developed countries such as U.S., but also in developing countries such as India and China. Recent estimates suggest that at least a third of the world is now overweight or obese.

The current study, according researchers, "opens up a lot of possibilities for obesity research."

Note that the study was conducted on mice, so the findings may or may not be found in humans. Still, the research shows that junk diet can alter neuronal pathways.