“Anything you can do I can do better.” That’s how the song goes, right? Well ladies, it seems as though some of that is true, at least when it comes to having a better sense of smell than men. There are many things that make each gender a true splendor of uniqueness, but women seem to have a hand up in the nose department. But why is that? And does it have any affect on weight loss?
The Olfactory Opportunists
Recent studies conducted by the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) show how the majority of modern women actually have a much better sense of smell than the average man, and it goes further to highlight some of the reasons behind it. One major cause: the superior female olfactory functioning. The study’s results were concluded after considering things like basic odor detection, smell identification, and different odor discrimination abilities. As it turned out, women scored significantly higher on each and every experiment conducted in the study. Interestingly, this heightened and innate female ability to smell more efficiently is often even apparent in newborn babies.
Menstrual Cycle Mentioning
Well there’s one thing that men cannot compete with when it comes to women, and that’s the ability to menstruate. What’s more is that some pretty significant changes to female sensitivity take place during a standard menstrual cycle, ultimately making women have a better sense of smell overall. It is a known fact that a woman can sense male pheromones 10,000 times more proficiently when they are ovulating, but some experts are now saying that general smell-sensitivity is heightened during this time as well. This conclusion was drawn due to the study’s results and to the fact that other senses such as hearing and taste are also more acute during ovulation in a woman.
Natural Selection
Well women, it might not be true that anything the men can do you can do better, but at least you have a more heightened sense of smell than they do. It can be said that a woman’s better sense of smell is something that comes quite naturally to her, and that men will most likely need the help of external tools, medicines, and other accoutrements to achieve the same ability. Perhaps in the future something might be invented for those purposes, but for now it seems as though the women get to win this one.
Due to a better sense of smell, it can be even more challenging for women to diet when surrounded by tempting scents than it is for men. That's why it's so important to keep temptations away if you are a woman trying to lose weight.
