Obese women who regularly smoke are less likely to taste fat or sweet in food, according to a study.

A research led by M. Yanina Pepino, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Julie Mennella a bio-psychologist at the Monell Center in Philadelphia found that overweight women who smoke cigarettes have diminished sensitivity to sweet and fat content in food.

The researchers observed women aged between 21 and 41 who were divided in four groups- 14 overweight smokers, 10 smokers with healthy weight, 11 obese nonsmokers and 12 non smokers with normal weight. All participants were asked to taste vanilla puddings of varied sugar and fat content to rate their sweetness and fat measurements.

Their findings revealed that obese women who regularly smoked were unable to ascertain exact amount of sweetness and creaminess in the desserts. While smoking women with normal weight and nonsmoking participants reported no difficulty in gauging fat and sweetness in puddings. The authors also noted the inability to identify tastes and fattiness can often leave women dissatisfied even after intake of sufficient quantity of food thereby increasing their urge to binge on sweet treats and fatty foods.

Yanina Pepino said in the news release, "Our findings suggest that having this intense craving but not perceiving fat and sweetness in food may lead these women to eat more. Since smoking and obesity are risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, the additional burden of craving more fats and sugars, while not fully tasting them, could be detrimental to health."

The research was funded by a grant to the Monell Center from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and is published in the journal Obesity.