Scientists find smells we find sexy

Fri Aug 13, 3:05 PM

Jordan Chittley
Yahoo! Canada News

Your sense of smell is no longer just for figuring out if the milk has gone bad, it can also trigger memories and get you set for a night of romance.

For Judy Dutton's new book, Secrets from the Sex Lab, she looked at some different researchers' findings and learned that men are most attracted to the smell of pumpkin pie mixed with lavender.

Women, on the other hand, are most attracted to the smell of cucumber mixed with the candy Good & Plenty.

"They got male and female subjects, sat them down and hooked them up to monitoring devices that would test blood flow down below," said Dutton.

For men, the pumpkin pie, lavender combination increased blood flow by 40 per cent. The cucumber, Good & Plenty combination increased women's blood flow by 14 per cent.

"When food is plentiful, people are more open to having sex," she said. It is a sign there is enough food to feed a large number of offspring. That is probably one reason most of the arousing smells are food.

"Part of why we like smells is associative," said David Sugarman, a senior researcher with the Ontario Science Centre. It has to do with memories that were formed quite early on or even before we were born.

"The why (for the study in Dutton's book) is still a bit of a mystery," she said.Perhaps the reason pumpkin pie works for men is because it "evokes fond memories of thanksgiving dinner or childhood."

What Dutton and Sugarman say, coincides with a study released last week that links the sense of smell to memory.

Researchers at the National Institute of Neuroscience in Turin, Italy found that rats stored memories in the same part of the brain as smells. This means the smell of turkey or pumpkin pie can remind us of a joyful Thanksgiving. It also means that smells can play a role in fear and anxiety disorders.

Sugarman, who does not like pumpkin pie, could not explain why it would be such an arousing smell. However, he did say perfumes are manufactured to act like pheromones (a chemical that triggers a social response). It is nothing new, but the idea behind perfumes, scented deodorants or soaps is to attract others.

While we can't smell through the TV, Old Spice is clearly trying to emotionally connect one with their smell.

If people smell Old Spice, maybe they will always remember a good-looking guy./p>

Ladies, maybe your man will get better looking if he uses Old Spice. Or, if Old Spice really wants to up their profits, maybe the next scented deodorant will be cucumber and Good & Plenty. And maybe Secret will come out as a deodorant that smells like pumpkin pie and lavender.