This is why eating asparagus makes your wee smell
Asparagus is a strange vegetable indeed: What other food is notorious for making our wee smell after eating it?
And if you’re someone who wrinkles your nose at a post-asparagus bathroom visit, it turns out you can blame your genes.
Because according to The Huffington Post, a new study has identified the genetic origin which decides whether you can smell that distinctive odour or not.
Which means yes – not everyone can smell it. And even more surprisingly: what you’re smelling isn’t the asparagus, but the smell of a metabolite, a substance formed during metabolism.
And not everyone can detect those metabolites produced when we eat asparagus.
The study involved more than 6,000 women and men from two different cohorts, and while 40% of them said they could smell an odour after eating asparagus, a whole 60% said they couldn’t.
The aim of the research, led by Sarah Markt and Lorelei Mucci at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, was to figure out if genetic factors play a big part in smelling odours.
The researchers discovered 871 certain variations in DNA sequence connected to not being able to smell the odour – and those variations were found in a selection of genes responsible for sense of smell.
Interestingly, while women tend to be known as better at picking out smells, a high proportion of the women participating said they couldn’t smell the odour in comparison to men – though the researchers guessed that women’s seating position as they urinate might affect this.
But apparently, to figure out why some people have these genetic variants, there’ll need to be more research done.
Can you smell the asparagus metabolite when you wee? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.
