So you know not to eat garlic before a night out when you’re trying to get lucky, and during a rough morning after you’ve probably sworn you were sweating out the remnants of your 7 cocktails. But what many of us don’t know is WHY this happens! Thanks to Salon.com and Dr. George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center and an expert in human body odor, have some of the answers!
He says the main factor affecting food and body odor is the presence of volatile organic aromatic compounds in certain strong-smelling foods. Kind of a lot to digest (no pun intended..) but bear with me. These aromatic compounds in the food you eat have to be fat soluble, so that they dissolve easily in your bloodstream. As a result, when ingested in large quantities, the smell comes out in your sweat! “Unfortunately, scientists still haven’t been able to figure out at what quantity the smell starts affecting your body odor in the long term,” says Preti, which means that, at some point, repeated eating of certain foods can make you smell like them..forever. Holy crap – if that’s the case, anyone who constantly overloads on garlic and onions should seriously reconsider their diet or else their love life may suffer.
Oh and Fritos, I don’t know about you but those just smell nasty.
