The smell of booze

Another good study kind of confirms what a lot of us already knew: just smelling alcohol leads to a craving.

"After repeatedly drinking alcohol, individuals learn to associate alcohol's appearance, taste and smell with its intoxicating properties," they say. They compare it to Pavlov's dogs. We condition ourselves to associate the smell of alcohol with pleasure feelings, and therefore get a craving to drink.

Since I quit smoking alcohol smells gross to me. I mean, a glass of wine passed under my nose makes me want one, but alcohol in a bar or on someone's breath just smells nasty. I can't believe the smell! Bars especially smell like someone's dirty socks. I don't know if I could ever eat in a bar again. Just that smell of stale beer. And when someone is talking to me after they've drunk, I just want to hold my breath. So maybe I don't have that gene, which would be nice.