You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh.

If you had to give up one of your five senses, what would it be?

If you would choose smell as the sense you're willing to lose, you're not alone.

But in this episode of Ted's video series, Body Stuff, Dr. Jen Gunter breaks down why our sense of smell is so important. You might even

reconsider whether it's worth giving up. This video series is a spinoff of Dr. Jen's popular

podcast of the same name, which you might have heard right here. If you enjoy it, you can watch

more episodes at TED.com slash body stuff. In a recent survey, a majority of respondents picked their sense of smell as the one they'd be

most willing to give up among the traditional five senses.

But if you love food, you should be giving your nose much more credit.

Because it's actually our sense of smell that plays a huge role

in our ability to process flavor.

First, let's talk about how smell works, from coffee to stinky trash. The substances around

us give off volatiles, which you can think of as

tiny smell molecules. We breathe in these smell molecules, which then stimulate the olfactory

sensory neurons that sit high in the nose. Each of these neurons contains an odor receptor

on its surface. Once the odor receptors are triggered by these

smell molecules, the neurons send information about them to the brain. Here's what I think is so cool.

The brain not only categorizes that information as a particular odor, it may also begin to

associate feelings like pleasure or disgust and other moods and emotions with that odor for future reference.

For example, you sniff bacon.

You eat it.

Your taste buds get salt.

...