Apparently, according to a survey, fish 'n' chips is not only one of the country's favourite meals - it's also our favourite smell! People in the UK said that the tempting aroma of fish and chips was even better than that of clean sheets or freshly baked bread.
Also making it to the top ten were frying bacon, freshly cut grass, lemon zest and a roast dinner, according to 3000 people surveyed.
Although fish and chips was the overall favourite smell, the cleanest and freshest smell voted was lemon, and over 53% of those asked said they felt happy when they caught a whiff of their favourite smell, and 46% said they found it relaxing.
According to experts, the sense of smell triggers emotions and behaviours from the subconscious regions of the brain. Food, for example, makes your mouth water - and that's in preparation of digestions. On the other hand, horrible smells have a protective function, warning us to keep away from something that might be harmful. The nation's most hated smell is of public toilets, but up there in the top ten of hated smells were body odour, babies' nappies, bad breath and cigarettes.
Lemon is commonly associated with freshness and cleanliness, but it also has antidepressant qualities. Strangely, the study was conducted by Finish Lemon Spark dishwasher products!
What's your favourite smell? I gave up eating meat years ago, but the smell of bacon cooking does it for me every time, and it gets harder and harder to resist the temptation (and occasionally I have to admit, I do give in - always feel terrible afterwards, though ...)
I'm up there with the rest on freshly cut grass and clean sheets, though, although I wouldn't have put Lemon as far up as that. Lily of the Valley, Roses and curry cooking are also favourites of mine - what about you?
