We all know the saying “smells can take you back in time.” But what if I told you that the smell of food can actually enable time travel? Sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, I know. But bear with me.
There’s a reason why the smell of freshly baked cookies or grandma’s apple pie can take you back to your childhood. It’s because smell is the most evocative of our senses. And what’s even more fascinating is that our sense of smell is encoded in our DNA.
So, when we smell something, we’re not just smelling the molecules of that particular food or fragrance. We’re also smelling the memories that are stored in our DNA.
In other words, the smell of food can take us back in time because it accesses the memories that are stored in our DNA. And these memories can be from any time in our lives – past, present, or future.
So, the next time you catch a whiff of something delicious, close your eyes and let the memories wash over you. Who knows, you might just find yourself transported to another time and place.
When it comes to the smells of food, they can either make us hungry or take us back in time. Interestingly, the former is more likely to happen when we’re in a good mood, while the latter occurs when we’re feeling down.
According to a new study, the reason for this difference is that when we’re happy, we focus more on the present moment, while when we’re sad, we’re more likely to think about the past.
Researchers presented participants with a series ofpositivescents, such as chocolate and flowers, or negative ones, likebody odor and vomit. They were then asked to rate how each smell made them feel.
The team found that the positive smells caused people to feel more linked to the present moment, while the negative smells made them feel as though they were traveling back in time.
“The temporal properties of odor are constantly being negotiated by our brain,” said Study Leader, Dr. Robert Sobel. “The ability to ‘time travel’ with certain smells may be related to our ability to evoke past events and people with other types of sensory input.”
So the next time you’re feeling down, try cooking your favorite comfort food. The smell might just take you back to a happier time.
