Dear LPG,

Did you know that today is National Sense of Smell Day?

Hypothetical questions often crop up during group conversations and I have been asked this one twice now; ’if you had to lose one of your senses and you had the choice, which would you give up’? 

Senses, it is thought that we have five principle ones that help us along the way during our lives and, when I think about it, I think that my senses of sight, hearing and touch are the most important to me.  That leaves taste and smell and I have decided that I would rather live without my sense of smell than any of the others.

The question got me thinking though and it also got me doing a bit of Googling.  According to the internet, it is likely that we older people may find that ours will become less acute as we get older.  

I read that it is quite likely that losing one’s sense of smell is often a gradual process and also that it is equally as important as that of taste when it comes to enjoying your food.  It can often be one of the symptoms of a heavy cold or ‘flu but, if you are unlucky enough to get ill in that way, you often have so much else going on that you can live without it for a week or two.

But when I was making my hypothetical option, I did not think of the implications of not being able to smell toxic, or corrosive chemicals that you might be breathing in without knowing it.  Can you imagine the implications when you are cooking?  I forget that when I am busy making my eggs and bacon on a Sunday morning I usually am reminded that the toast needs turning because I can smell it.   Even though we have sell by dates on so many foods now, we still use our sense of smell as an added safeguard when working out if certain foods, such as milk, have gone off and are unsafe to eat and imagine not being able to smell your own body odour. Just imagine not being able to smell a gas leak and the implications of that.

I found quite a bit of information about what you can do to improve your sense of smell, whether it be because you want to be able to use your nose in the same way as a barista or wine-tasting expert does, or just because you have noticed that the sense of smell you have now is not the same as it once was.

Today, being highlighted as a day to celebrate this wonderful power that we have been given and that so many of us take for granted and although I have never had a really good sense of smell. I think that I will think again when someone asks me that particular hypothetical question.

MH, Lewisham

MH found some information relating to National Sense of Smell day and  a few bits of other related information…

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