The Sensa diet plan, otherwise known as the Sensa Sprinkle Diet, is a diet plan developed by Dr. Alan Hirsch that does not try to change what you eat, but instead focuses on the quantity of the foods you eat. By curbing your appetite, the Sensa diet purports to help you lose weight. It accomplishes this reduction in appetite through the use of tastants. According to Hirsch, sprinkling the tastants on the foods you eat will trigger a feeling of satiety, or fullness, causing you to eat less and ultimately lose weight. You should, however, speak with a medical professional prior to starting any new diet including the Sensa diet plan.
Tastants
The Sensa diet program recommends using two types of tastants. You use the first type on savory foods that would normally require salt. You use the second type on sweet foods such as desserts. The tastants sold as part of the Sensa diet plan contain no sugar, calories, sodium or gluten. According to Hirsch, the tastants work by sending a scent through your nose to your nerve receptors. This scent signals your brain and the satiety center in your hypothalamus. Your brain then signals your pituitary gland, triggering the release of hormones that make you feel satisfied, or full.
Allowed Foods
According to the Sensa diet plan, you do not have to change any of the foods you eat. Hirsch states that the action of the tastants will cause you to eat less and less food with every meal. Overtime, this will cause you stomach to shrink further reducing your appetite. Hirsch does recommend that you try to eat healthy meals and develop an exercise regimen. However, these are not required components of the Sensa diet plan.
Ease of Use
One of the biggest advantages that the Sensa diet plan has over other diet programs is that you can easily adapt the this diet program without any special foods or dietary changes. Not having to count calories, weigh, measure, cook, mix or drink special foods makes this diet extremely user friendly. The ingredients in Sensa are maltodextrin from corn, tricalcium phosphate, silica, natural and artificial flavors, FD&C yellow 5, and carmine. Sensa also contains soy and milk ingredients.
The Science Behind Sensa
Dr. Alan Hirsch is a nationally recognized neurologist and the director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. Based on Hirsch's research of how smell and taste affects weight loss, he developed the Sensa diet program. One study conducted by Hirsch on the effectiveness of Sensa examined 1436 overweight or obese men who used Sensa for six months. Participants lost an average of 30.5 lbs. or approximately 15 percent of their body weights. A control group of 100 participants were given non-flavored crystals instead of Sensa and on average lost only 2 lbs. over the same six-month period. No objective independent studies exist, however, confirming the effectiveness of Sensa.
References
- "Sensa Weight-Loss Program: The Accidental Discovery That's Transforming the Way People Lose Weight"; Alan R. Hirsch and Darin Dougherty; 2009
- "Scentsational Weight Loss: At Last a New Easy Natural Way To Control Your Appetite"; Alan R. Hirsch
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