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 spin off of Dr. Jen's popular podcast of the same name.

What you might have heard right here.

If you enjoy it, you can watch more episodes at Ted.com slash Body Stuff.

You can find how to be a better human wherever you're listening to this.

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.

This is 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 volatile, 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.

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