For people who’ve been meat eaters their entire lives, giving up bacon can be as challenging as giving up smoking for smokers is.
This may explain the need for developing this patch that helps us reduce our meat consumption.
A professor from Oxford, Charles Spence, has created this patch that’s infused with bacon smell, similar to the nicotine replacements that are worn by smokers when they’re trying to give up smoking.
What Does this Patch Do for People Who Want to Eat less Meat?
When you scratch the patch that’s infused with bacon smell, it helps you lower your cravings for meat.
Spence is a professor in experimental psychology and world renowned expert in sensory perception and the tricks which our mind can play with our smell and taste.
He worked together with Strong Roots, a plant-based food producer, to develop this patch.
He claims that in a way, the patch allows the users to imagine they’re eating slices of bacon and they’re left satisfied because of this.
According to Spence, studies have found that a scent is able to lower our food cravings.
He explains that our smell is associated with our taste and so food-related cues like smelling the aroma of bacon can make us imagine that we’re eating that food.
Therefore, you may try and imagine yourself eating bacon and you may start feeling full.
The Patches Are Being Trialed
These patches will be tested on users in Leeds, Reading, London, and Liverpool who’re trying to stop eating meat.
Strong Roots wants to make the patches widely available and are confident they’ll help us fight off our temptations for bacon and other meats.
The patch is currently promoted by a contestant in Love Island, Tommy Furry. A spokesperson for Strong Roots stated that British people tend to adopt a vegetarian diet and now, they have a science method to ease their meat reduction.
According to a study done with 2000 adults, between alcohol, meat, and cigarettes, meat was found to be the most challenging to give up.
The founder of Strong Roots, Samuel Dennigan, explains that this research is a perfect example of how many people struggle with the resolution to give up meat so they wanted to be of aid and developed this patch.
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