Lose weight with the help of essential oils, the dieter's friend.

That's right.  Just sniffing essential oils can help you feel full sooner and control between meal snack cravings.

Studies by Dr. Alan Hirsch confirmed that people who systematically sniffed aromas when snack cravings struck were more successful at resisting the urge to snack.  Better yet, when people sniffed aromas before and during a meal, they consistently ate less.  The best news of all is that with continued use of aromas to help control appetite, three-quarters of the thousands of people in the studies kept the weight off after a year.  For most people in the study, weight control had been a long term problem with no lasting solution until they tried aromatherapy.

The explanation is simple.  The satiety center of the brain, which tells us when we have eaten enough, is satisfied to a great degree by the aromas of food.  This is why it is easy to eat a lot of aromatically bland foods, like ice cream.  Conversely, it is hard it eat a lot of a very spicy food.  The strong spicy aromas trigger the satiety center more quickly than bland foods.

It's also helpful to practice good meal habits.  These include eating at the table and focusing on every delicious bite, chewing each one well.  Television, internet and reading materials are much more likely to lead to mindless eating.

The aromas used in the studies that we read were banana, peppermint and apple.  Different people preferred different aromas.

While there are no essential oils of apple or banana, there are several essential oils and herbs that have been used to curb hunger.  Fennel is a classic.  Fennel seeds were issued to Roman soldiers to keep their mind off hunger pangs while they were on the march.  Essential oils peppermint and orange are also useful. 

We blend essential oils fennel, orange and peppermint into a cheerful blend we call Dieter's Friend.  This minty/fruity aroma helps replace a food "reward" with an aromatic reward.  The blend is also nice for queasy kids and motion sickness.

The easiest way to use your hunger-controlling blend is in a personal inhaler that goes with you everywhere in pocket, purse or backpack.