Another thing that can be added to the list of why chocolate is amazing: the smell makes working out easier.
Researchers recently exposed exercising men to chocolate odors before and between sets of resistance exercise. They recorded a significant increase in overall training volume without an increase in exertion.
The participant sample consisted of 23 healthy, moderately trained men in their early to mid-20s. Divided into three groups, they were provided one of three odor samples: liquified dark chocolate containing 90% cocoa, liquified milk chocolate containing 60% cocoa, or a water sample serving as a control.
Participants had not eaten for at least 10 hours before performing leg extensions. Hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and plans to eat in the near future were reported before the leg workout. During the sets, only hunger and desire to eat were measured, each after 30 seconds of exposure to a scent sample.
These measurements showed that both chocolate types had clear but different effects on appetite-related measures. Relative to the water control and milk chocolate samples, sniffing dark chocolate consistently led to participants reporting less hunger, reduced desire and intention to eat, and greater fullness before exercise. This smell predominantly suppressed appetite by reducing hunger and increasing fullness. In contrast, those smelling the milk chocolate sample reported higher odor pleasantness compared with dark chocolate and water samples, but no changes in hunger or appetite.
Smelling chocolate samples affected performance, as well. Sniffing a 90% dark chocolate odor added about 18 more repetitions to participants’ leg extensions, while a 60% milk chocolate odor added about nine repetitions compared.
The researchers think these changes in appetite perception could be related to what we learn about smells from a young age.
“The dark chocolate scent serves as a learned cue for a rich, bitter, and highly satiating food, which essentially tricks the system into an anticipatory state of fullness,” said study author Mohamed Nashrudin Naharudin, assistant professor at the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Malaya. “Conversely, the sweeter milk chocolate scent acts more like a hedonic reward cue, enhancing training volume by creating a highly pleasant sensory environment rather than by shifting basic metabolic hunger signals.”
These effects suggest that anticipation of food could have similar effects to its actual consumption, particularly because they’re observable when people haven’t eaten. Food scents might kickstart the digestive process or trigger changes in body and mind that occur in anticipation of a meal. These changes closely mimic some of the psychological and physiological shifts typically brought on by actual eating.
Data from Frontiers