How A Bacon Patch Can Help You Quit Your Favorite Meat

We all know that familiar smell of bacon sizzling in the pan, a mouth-watering aroma that fills the room. For those trying to fight their bacon addictions and stick to their resolutions to lose weight or cut back on meat consumption, this smell may be an asset to your efforts. Strong Roots, a company that produces plant-based foods, has created a scratch and sniff patch that smells like bacon to help fight those cravings (via The Telegraph).

The patch was created by Charles Spence, a professor at the University of Oxford specializing in sensory perception and the connections between the mind and the senses of smell and taste (via Business Insider). It works by producing a smell similar to that of cooked bacon. Spence discusses these mind and sensory connections in his book Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating.

"Our sense of smell is strongly connected to our ability to taste, therefore experiencing food related cues such as smelling a bacon aroma, can lead us to imagine the act of eating that food," he explained. "Imagine eating enough bacon and you might find yourself sated." 

While it might make you feel like some sort of meat junkie, as if you might start getting the shakes without your morning bacon, egg, and cheese, it's not as absurd as it might sound. Beating your bacon cravings may just be a patch away.

It's hard to cut back on meat

Meat addiction may sound a bit ridiculous, but a poll of 2,000 British adults cited by The Telegraph found that given the choice of cigarettes, alcohol, or meat, most people found meat to be the most difficult to quit. Half of the poll respondents admitted to wanting to cut back on meat, but 56 percent failed within the first month.

The patches are currently in a trial phase, according to Samuel Dennigan, the founder of Strong Roots (via Fox News). They are aimed at people interested in experimenting with a plant-based diet.

Tommy Fury, a cast member of the British reality series Love Island, has signed on to promote the patches on social media.

Imagine... you'll soon be able to scratch and sniff your way to a bacon-less lifestyle.