The verdict? The guys who didn’t eat meat smelled more pleasant and attractive. Then, the researchers had 30 women sniff and rate each one these pads for intensity, sexual attractiveness, and masculinity. For the study, researchers had one group of guys eat red meat twice a day for two weeks while another group ate no red meat at all for the same time period.ĭuring the last 24 hours of the experiment, the men wore pads under their armpits to collect their body odor. That slab of steak could be stinking up your sweat, according to research published in the journal Chemical Senses. Related: 5 Body Odors You Should Never Ignore Go for other colorful fruits and vegetables that don’t contain as much sulfur, like squash, sweet potato, eggplant, oranges, and peaches. This link hasn’t been researched thoroughly enough to establish a definite relationship, so you don’t need to avoid sulfurous vegetables entirely, especially since they’re packed with disease-fighting health benefits.īut if you eat them regularly and suspect they could be contributing to your body odor, it doesn’t hurt to occasionally switch things up. These foods release sulfur - typically responsible for that rotten egg smell - as you digest them, which makes its way to your sweat glands, brewing some pungent B.O. “Regardless of whether you eat them raw or if you cook them, it’s the way the body breaks it down,” she says. View Gallery 5 Photosįor some people, body odor might be caused by foods that contain sulfur, such as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, says Lily Talakoub, M.D., a dermatologist at McLean Dermatology and Skincare Center. Still, there are specific foods that have the ability to affect certain people, says Dr. Your diet will likely have a small effect, if any, on your B.O. “We don’t know if these types of odors are transmitted into the underarm secretions from food, but we do know that most of the people walking around the planet have the ability to produce these odors in their underarm,” Preti says. In fact, your body creates two naturally-occuring odors that happen to smell like food - sweaty onion and spicy cumin - even though they aren’t necessarily caused by eating. Still, there’s little concrete research exploring the connection, and even after a particuarly smelly meal, it’s difficult to tell what causes any specific body odor and where it’s coming from. Those glands are likely responsible for the link between your diet and your B.O. Apocrine glands, on the other hand, live in your underarms and groin, where they secrete oily substances that account for most of your body odor. Eccrine glands produce the relatively stink-free watery sweat that covers your body after a tough workout. Your body has two types of sweat glands, he explains. That’s because “body odor is a relatively complex situation,” says David Pariser, M.D., a dermatologist at Pariser Dermatology. When it comes to B.O., stress, your grooming routine, and certain health problems can all make an impact.Įven the food you eat might play a role, explains George Preti, Ph.D, an organic chemist who studies body odor at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, but scientists are still trying to figure out how your diet contributes to your stench. No one likes to stink - but everyone deals with it. No matter how hard you try to fight body odor, that putrid-smelling prespiration always seems to leave you drenched in stench at the worst possible moment.