Do Your Food Cravings and Favorite Flavors Indicate Your Personality? Plus an Introduction to the Sensa Diet

Is nothing sacred? It seems as though someone somewhere in the world can tell everything about us from what would seem like totally benign preferences, physical attributes, or behaviors.

Not long ago I wrote an article titled “Does Eye Color Indicate Intelligence and Personality?” Many psychologists are convinced that they can connect a person’s eye color and iris pattern to personality and intelligence.

If that is not enough, now we have Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, a neurologist, insisting that it is possible to determine personality traits by studying a person’s preferred food flavors.

Not only that, but Dr. Hirsch has designed a diet that satisfies a person’s favorite flavors that he says his research has proven will encourage weight loss without making any changes to one’s diet or exercise routines. In other words, you can eat what you want and exercise more or not at all and still lose weight on his diet.

Pink Grapefruit Can Improve a Woman’s Looks

A study done by The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation demonstrated that the smell of grapefruit affects age perception. “In the presence of the smell of pink grapefruit, women appear to be six years younger [to men] than their real age.”

Dr. Alan R. Hirsch

More Scent Trivia

It is believed that sexual activity improves a person’s sense of smell. In turn, an increased sense of smell increases sexual desire. Round and round it goes . . .

Wearing a blend of vanilla and cinnamon can enhance the attraction of the opposite sex.

The scent of chili peppers can increase sexual desire.

Selfgrowth.com

Dr. Hirsch is the developer of the SENSA diet or what is sometimes referred to as the Sprinkle Diet, which is based on the premise that satisfying a person’s cravings, or preferred flavors and smells, will result in weight loss.

The SENSA diet involves purchasing food flakes that are sodium, sugar, and calorie free and then sprinkling them onto one’s food, which enhances the smell and flavor of the food. The idea is that one’s brain and stomach are fooled into believing a person’s favorite foods and flavors are being consumed.

Other than sprinkling the food flakes developed by Dr. Hirsch onto one’s food, no diet or exercise changes are required.

Does SENSA really help a person lose weight? Wendy Bassett, an accountant in Tyler, Texas, said it worked for her and she lost 30 pounds in just 4 months by sprinkling the SENSA flakes on food she normally eats. The product works by tricking the brain of the user into believing s/he is full.

In addition to creating the SENSA Diet, Dr. Hirsch is the founder and director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Illinois. He has conducted more than 200 research studies relating to sensory impressions and disorders, and neurological reactions to sensory input over the last 25 years that included some 18,000 participants.

SmellandTaste.Org states that “Many of these studies have explored how enhancing certain smells and tastes can impact eating patterns, mood, perception and even learning speed. In addition, Dr. Hirsch is currently conducting more than 80 studies on the effects of smell and taste on weight loss, sleep, consumer preferences, and sexual habits, among many other topics.”

Dr. Hirsh has also written a book titled, “What Flavor Is Your Personality?” That is the main subject of this article. What our favorite flavors say about us, and our personalities.

What Flavor Indicates YOUR Personality?

You may be a perfectionist. Details matter. You like order. Being organized at all times is a must and disorder drives you crazy. You may be a control freak and a neatnik, at least where your own life is concerned. You sleep better when your towels are all folded and stacked perfectly in the linen closet, and the spaces between the hangers in your closet are uniform. If anything peeves you more than disorder it is wasting time. – your time being wasted by people and events beyond your control.

You like to be noticed and appreciated more than the average. You like to stand out and feel special and be considered special by other people. You love adventure and risk. You like to do the wild things that other people do not have the chutzpah or the nerve to do. You are self-indulgent and love a good time. Nothing is too good or too expensive, decadent or elaborate for you. You prefer to regret (which you all but never do) what you have done, rather than what you have not done.

You are a person who believes in fate and that you have little if any control over your own life and how it will play out. You believe things happen because they are meant to happen, and that there is very little that you can do to make any difference or to change the direction your life is predestined to go. If you do something, or not, it is because you were meant to do it – or not.

If you think chocolate dipped potato chips or pretzels are yummy, or you love to mix salted nuts and chocolate chips, this may be your flavor personality. Chocolate chip cookies may be a favorite too, since they often have just the right balance of sweet and salty.

You are an introvert possibly to the extent of being a loner. You may seem standoffish or even snobbish to many other people even though that is not usually the case. You are generally highly intelligent, very creative, and sometimes lack patience with people of lesser ability in whatever talents or skills you have. You tend to be a very private person.

If you prefer milk chocolate:

You are an introvert who prefers a good book to a party. You are quiet and sometimes mistaken for shy. Peaceful activities are preferable to loud noisy affairs.

If you prefer dark chocolate:

You are the life of the party. You are the first to dive into a new project and lead the effort. You love to socialize.

Men are aroused by the scents of lavender and pumpkin pie. Women (and men too) are more sexually reactive to cucumber and black licorice. The smell of banana nut bread seems to have a similar affect as well.

Other scents that work well as aphrodisiacs when not used in excess or combined together include vanilla, peppermint, and jasmine.

Askmen.com

Your Nose Knows Who Will Make a Good Reproductive Partner

Another way your nose determines who you are sexually attracted to is explained in this article: Evolutionary Psychology: Your Nose Chooses Your Mate – Chemistry Is More Important Than You Thought

Keep in mind that very few things are 100%. The only real guarantee in this world is -- and I am sorry if this depresses anyone – death. Not even taxes are guaranteed. Some people do not pay any. Ever.

So if you find you do not fit neatly into any of these descriptions by Dr. Hirsch, take heart. Not all of us are so easily defined. I do not fit into them nice and neat. I am definitely sweet and salty, but somehow the chocolates seemed to have gotten crossed where I am concerned.

I like dark chocolate, but I am not a party girl, never was, and cannot imagine myself as the life of any party. The description for milk chocolate fits me pretty well, so the descriptions for the chocolates, in my case, seem to be reversed. While I like milk chocolate, dark chocolate is my favorite. Oh well, it was fun though, wasn’t it?

Does SENSA really help a person lose weight? Wendy Bassett, an accountant in Tyler, Texas, said it worked for her and she lost 30 pounds in just 4 months by sprinkling the SENSA flakes on food she normally eats. The product works by tricking the brain of the user into believing s/he is full.

There is another side to this so-called diet program, however. It would seem that more people have found it to be a scam than to be of any help or benefit in loosing unwanted weight. Read some of their reviews on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Sensa-Weight-Loss-Program-Accidental-Transforming/product-reviews/0981538185. It seems some people pretend to have lost weight by using this product when in fact they not only didn’t lose weight by using Sensa flakes, but were never overweight to begin with — and they were paid to mislead.

The Federal Trade Commission, a government consumer protection agency with the purpose of identifying fraud and deception and forcing it to stop brought charges against Sensa and two other similar diet companies fir engaging in consumer fraud in order to promote their products. Sensa marketers agreed to pay 26.5 Million dollars to settle the charges brought against them by the FTC for deceiving and defrauding customers. The money was used to reimburse Sensa customers, and has probably all been paid out in that endeavor, since the charges were brought and settled several years ago (2014-2015).

SmellandTaste.org

http://www.smellandtaste.org/

Alan R. Hirsch developer of the SENSA diet

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-sensa

Cravings and what they mean

http://www.ameseatsflavors.com/2011/02/08/cravings-decrypt-personality-2/

Dr. Hirsch personality judgments

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33589896/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/decode-your-food-cravings/#.UloGiihu8UU

New York Times – Does SENSA really work?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/fashion/18skin.html?_r=0

Forbes.com -- Spice lovers are adventurous

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2013/09/12/personality-predicts-liking-for-spice-why-taco-bells-fiery-doritos-locos-tacos-hits-the-mark/

Forbes.com

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2012/10/02/what-your-junk-food-choices-say-about-you/

Federal Trade Commission

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/01/sensa-three-other-marketers-fad-weight-loss-products-settle-ftc

Eating styles

http://www.divinecaroline.com/life-etc/home-food/eating-habits-and-personality-surprising-connection

MensHealth.com on how to know if a woman will be good in bed.

http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/is_she_good_in_bed/She_Screams_for_Ice_Cream.php

How scent has influenced sexual desire over history

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/sex_and_scent_part1.html

Askmen.com recommendations for aphrodisiacal scents

http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip_200/224_love_tip.html

http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip_250/285_love_tip.html

Amazon Customer Reviews

https://www.amazon.com/Sensa-Weight-Loss-Program-Accidental-Transforming/product-reviews/0981538185