Some basic biology learned from study of fruit flies could
help us understand food choice in obese people.
Think of the smell of freshly baking bread. There is
something in that smell, without any other cues – visual or tactile – that
steers you toward the bakery. On the
flip side, there may be a smell, for instance that of fresh fish, that may not
appeal to you. If you haven’t eaten a morsel of food in three days, of course,
a fishy odor might seem a good deal more attractive.
How, then, does this work? What underlying biological
mechanisms account for our seemingly instant, almost unconscious ability to
determine how attractive (or repulsive) a particular smell is? It’s a very important question for scientists
who are trying to address the increasingly acute problem of obesity: we need to
understand much better than we now do the biological processes underlying food
selection and preferences.