What Does That Smell Remind You Of?

If you have shopped the scented candle aisle at the grocery store recently you might have come across fragrant names such as “Grandma’s Sugar Cookie” or “Mom’s Apple Pie.”  Those familiar scents are marketed not by accident.  Scientists have shown how aromas trigger memories of comfort and safety.  We all know that Clint Black taught us that a melody can bring back a memory and Yogi Berra coined “Deja Vu All Over Again,” but what is it about food memories and how they tend to hit differently than other types of memories?

Professor Scott Kanoski at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, has learned that our stomach’s may contribute to memory formation, particularly when an experience involves finding and consuming food.  USC researchers wanted to know if how we eat plays a part in memory, so they tracked brain activity in rats while they ate. Nutritious food triggered a rise in acetylcholine, a chemical tied to memory formation, in neurons feeding into the brain’s memory center. When the researchers cut off communication along the vagus nerve, that rise disappeared, and the rats struggled to remember where they’d found food.

The vagus nerve is the main line of communication between your stomach and your brain and acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that helps the brain record new information and form memories. When you combine the study of these two, you can determine that the brain responds differently when we eat certain foods.  Not just the smell, but the nutritional value too.  The experiments showed that the brain's memory system responded to the nutritional content of food, not simply to how pleasant or sweet it tasted. Rats that consumed sugar or fat displayed strong activity in brain pathways involved in memory. By contrast, animals given low-calorie or noncaloric liquids that tasted sweet did not produce the same response. The results suggest that the brain distinguishes between flavor and actual nutritional value. A sweet taste alone was not enough to activate the memory-related pathway.

So what is the takeaway? Your body may reward foods that nourish you by making those meals stick in your memory, not just because they taste amazing. So next time you are looking for a scented candle combination for nostalgia, maybe “Pot Roast” or “Lasagna?”

Scientists are describing things Bible readers already know.  Yes, certain aromas are delicious and pleasing, but now we have a scientific bases and understanding for Biblical application.
 
Leviticus 1:1-9 gives us the instruction of how the Burnt Offering was to be prepared by the priests and given to the Lord, but it is Paul who brings it to life in spiritual form in his letter to the Corinthians.

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. 2 Corinthians 2:15-17

When we truly live for Christ, we are that pleasing reminder before God and people of who Jesus really is and what He came to do.  It’s not just calling oneself a Christian and performing an act, it is the whole person that is involved.  Mind, body and spirit in the act of service.  It is only then that we are becoming like Christ and giving off the spiritual aroma that makes people want seconds on whatever it is that we are serving.  It is Christ through us that is compelling people to come to Him!

Whether it is Freshly Ground Coffee or Thanksgiving Dinner, scents are connected to life or death and instantly present a memory for a reason.  What scent are you giving off and how will you be remembered for it?

Serving the Savior,  
Bro. Jonathan