LIFE IS JUST AS SWEET AFTER 55

Why try to stop and smell the roses when you can sniff cookies instead? A study in the journal Food Quality and Preference says although our sense of smell deteriorates after age 55, we can still perceive sweet foods. University of Copenhagen researchers asked 251 Danes aged 6098 to identify food odours, comparing them to 92 Danes aged 20-39. “While their ability to smell fried meat, onions, and mushrooms is markedly weaker, they smell orange, raspberry, and vanilla just as well as younger adults,” Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge said.

Salty or umami flavours, which are most affected by aging, could be at play.

“Since taste and smell are strongly associated when it comes to food, our perception of aroma may be disturbed if one's taste perception of saltiness is impaired to begin with,” she said.