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Scented products, including crystals you sprinkle on your food and products you inhale before eating, can trigger your body to think it's full, aiding weight loss, say companies who sell the products. Nutritionists and doctors who specialize in weight loss say the research conducted so far isn't convincing.
In theory, certain scents can help stimulate the 'satiety center,' or the part of your brain that tells you when you are full. The products generally include a variety of scents which people are supposed to alternate to avoid the body becoming accustomed to any one scent, which could cause it to lose its effectiveness.
SlimScents LLC of Marlton, N.J., sells a $50 set of three pen-shaped inhalers, which it says last four to six weeks before losing their scent. Glacier Point Solutions Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., sells an $18 package of three Happy Scent jars -- peppermint, banana and green apple -- which it says last a year. Both products are designed to be sniffed five minutes before eating.
Another method is crystals you sprinkle on your food before eating. A six-month 'starter kit' of Sensa crystals, from Intelligent Beauty LLC, of El Segundo, Calif., costs $289. The kit includes a new set of two types of crystals -- one for sweet and one for other food -- each month. On its website, Intelligent Beauty says the crystals, which it calls tastants, are designed to 'trigger your 'I feel full' signal.'
The idea that scent can help you lose weight is 'intriguing,' says Louis J. Aronne director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. But the research done so far is 'not adequate' to show the currently marketed products work, he says.
Intelligent Beauty says participants lost an average 30.5 pounds over six months in a 1,436-person study conducted by Alan Hirsch, a scientist it describes as the 'founder' of its weight-loss system. However, Intelligent Beauty -- which puts Dr. Hirsch's photo on its Sensa packages -- declined to answer questions about the study or whether Dr. Hirsch is on staff at the company, whether he has an ownership stake or whether he receives financial compensation from sale of the product. Intelligent Beauty initially set up a phone interview with Dr. Hirsch and then cancelled it, citing an 'urgent matter.' Dr. Hirsch, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, didn't return a call seeking comment.
The study hasn't been published, Intelligent Beauty said. It was presented in June 2008 at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco, according to a spokesman for the society. The spokesman provided an abstract of the study, which said the research involved 2,437 overweight or obese subjects and 100 'nontreated controls.' It said 1,436 people completed the study.
Happy Scent hasn't been tested in a clinical trial, but there are 'anecdotal reports' from users that it works, said Donna Schilder, president of Glacier Point. SlimScents says it has two published studies showing its effectiveness, including one in 1995 by Dr. Hirsch. SlimScents President Mark Cohen says Dr. Hirsch developed the scents it uses and is a former business partner but the relationship dissolved due to 'business differences.'
The follow-up study, published in 1999 in the Journal of Advancement in Medicine and financed by SlimScents, found patients using the fruity-scented pens lost an average of 19.15 pounds, or 11.7% of body weight, over four months, compared with 3.85 pounds lost by patients using a placebo, detergent-scented pen.
Longer-term work is needed to see if patients maintain weight loss, says Lawrence Cheskin, director of Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Baltimore. Adds Andrea Giancoli, a Los Angeles dietitian and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, 'whether it is successful or not, it's not teaching you how to make better choices.'
James O. Hill, co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry, a database of more than 6,000 people who have lost an average of 70 pounds and kept it off for six years, says there is no quick fix for people who successfully lose weight. Registrants exercise a lot and are 'conscious of every morsel they put in their mouths,' says Dr. Hill, who is executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado in Denver.
参考译文：
有一种散发特殊气味的产品，比如洒在食物上的小颗粒或是供饭前闻一下的东西，可以让你的身体以为已经吃饱了，从而帮助你减肥。商家们如是说。不过营养学家和专业医师表示，迄今为止的研究尚未为上述说法提供有力的证明。
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
SlimScents LLC出售的吸入器
从理论上讲，某些气味确实有助于刺激人的“餍足中枢”，即大脑中负责传达已吃饱信息的部位。那些香气减肥产品通常会包括很多种可能会引发饱腹感的气味供消费者更换使用，以免人体会适应某种味道，从而降低减肥效果。
总部位于美国新泽西州马尔顿(Marlton)的SlimScents LLC出售一种售价50美元的套装产品，其中包括三只笔状的据称香味能持续四到六周的吸入器。加州长滩(Long Beach)的Glacier Point Solutions Inc.出售一种名曰Happy Scent的香气罐套装，三个罐子售价18美元，其中分别是薄荷油、香蕉和绿苹果的气味，其效力据称能持续一年。两种产品都需要在餐前吸5分钟。
另一种闻香减肥的方式是在饭前将一种颗粒状的产品洒在食物上。加州El Segundo的Intelligent Beauty LLC所出售的够使用六个月的入门产品Sensa，售价289美元。此产品中包括两种颗粒，一种用在甜食上，一种用于其他食品，每月一套。该公司在其网站上称，这种被他们叫做甜味剂(tastants)的颗粒是用来“唤醒你‘我吃饱了’的感觉的”。
纽约-长老会医院/康乃尔医疗中心(NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center)综合体重控制项目(Comprehensive Weight Control Program)的负责人路易斯•艾洛尼(Louis Aronne)表示，用味道帮助减肥的想法很有趣，不过迄今为止所进行的研究都不足以证明当前市场上销售的产品有效。
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
Intelligent Beauty出售的入门产品Sensa小颗粒
据Intelligent Beauty称，一位被该公司称作这套减肥理论的“创始人”、名叫艾伦•赫希(Alan Hirsch)的科学家进行了一项有1,436名志愿者参与的试验，试验结果显示，参与者六个月的时间里平均减重30.5磅。不过，在记者提出有关这项试验、以及这位照片被印在公司产品Sensa包装上的赫希博士是否是该公司成员、是否持有该公司股权或是从产品销售中获得回报等问题时，这家公司表示拒绝回答。Intelligent Beauty起初安排了一次同赫希的电话采访，之后又以“紧急事项”为由将采访取消了。芝加哥拉什大学医学中心(Rush University Medical Center)的助理教授赫希没有回复记者的问询电话。
Intelligent Beauty表示，这项研究尚未发表。据内分泌学会(Endocrine Society)的一位发言人称，该研究于2008年6月在该学会在旧金山召开的年会上公布过。根据这位发言人提供的一份摘要，参与此次试验的包括2,437位肥胖或超重志愿者，以及100位比较对象。最终1,436人完成了试验。
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
Happy Scent
Glacier Point的总裁堂娜•希尔德(Donna Schilder)称，该公司产品Happy Scent尚未进行临床试验，不过偶有来自用户的非正式报告显示其产品有效。SlimScents表示有两项已经发表的研究成果能够证明其产品有效，其中一份是赫希博士在1995年发表的。据SlimScents总裁马克•科恩(Mark Cohen)称，赫希博士是他们产品中所使用香料的开发者，之前还是公司的一位合伙人，不过他们之间的合作因“业务方面的分歧”而结束了。
1999年发表在《Journal of Advancement in Medicine》上的一项后续研究显示，患者在使用水果香味的笔状吸入器四个月后，平均减重19.15磅，相当于体重的11.7%；而使用安慰剂、即一种清洁剂香味吸入器的患者体重仅下降了3.85磅。此项研究由SlimScents出资赞助。
位于巴尔的摩的约翰•霍普金斯体重管理中心(Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center)主任劳伦斯•切斯金(Lawrence Cheskin)称，患者能否长期维持减肥效果尚需要研究。洛杉矶的营养学家、美国营养学会发言人安德里亚•詹克列(Andrea Giancoli)则表示，无论这种减肥方式是否奏效，它都没有引导你学会去做出更好的选择。
美国全国体重控制登记处(National Weight Control Registry)的联合发起人詹姆斯•希尔(James O. Hill)表示，对于那些成功减肥的人来说，没有捷径可走。这家机构的数据库中登记了6千多名平均减重70磅且保持了六年的减肥成功者。这些成员做很多运动而且对他们放进嘴里的每一口食物都很心知肚明。希尔还是科罗拉多大学丹佛分校(University of Colorado in Denver)安秀兹健康中心(Anschutz Health and Wellness Center)的执行主任。
