According to studies, the aroma of olive oil regulates satiety and will help you consume fewer calories.
Olive oil would be able to make you eat less by giving you the feeling of being full, even if your meal was frugal, that is to say by controlling your center of satiety.
Researchers at the University of Vienna studied four different fats and oils: bacon, butter, rapeseed oil and olive oil. And the big winner of the study was olive oil.
Study participants consumed 500 grams of low-fat yogurt, but fortified with one of these fats, each day. According to the researchers, olive oil demonstrated the greatest satiety effect compared to the other fats in the study.
The study participants who were in the olive oil group also had a higher blood concentration of serotonin which is a hormone which participates in this feeling of satiety. No member of this group, olive oil, increased their weight or percentage of body fat.
Researchers were amazed at the result that olive oil and rapeseed oil have the same types of fatty acids. They then tested two groups. The first group consumed yogurt in which they simply added an additive with the aroma of olive oil and the second group a plain yogurt. The test was conclusive, the participants who consumed plain yogurt consumed 170 calories more per day than the group consuming yogurt with the aroma of olive oil.
The plain yogurt group also had a lower serotonin level in the blood than the olive oil flavor group.
The researchers conclude that an aroma is able to regulate satiety.
Anyway it is not necessary to be satisfied with just the aroma, but to fully enjoy the taste and the many other nutritional qualities of olive oil.