Smell plays a large evolutionary part in picking potential mates. Our noses know how to diversify our gene pools, when fertility is at its height — and also detect who will agree with our political stance. Sense of smell even correlates with social circle size. Researchers set out to find whether foods rich in carotenoids, a pigment shown to increase skin tone attractiveness, would also give body odor a boost. They studied male sweat samples with females sniff-testing for hedonic, intensity and qualitative attributes. The results, as published in Evolution and Human Behavior say: "men who ate a variation of vegetables and fruits, as well as reasonable amounts of fat, meats, eggs and tofu, smelled better than those who ate a lot of carbs. The low-carb diets produced a floral, fruity, sweet and medicinal" sweat, while higher carbohydrate intake resulted in stronger, less pleasant body odor". http://www.popsci.com/science-shows-that-men-who-eat-salads-smell-attractive Study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513816301933 I wonder if study included salads that contain garlic or onion.
My question is, did these women know this information going into the experiment? Were they told that certain sweat samples came from men who ate 'x' and the other set of sweat examples came from 'y?' If so, then that would skew the results because many people have a bias about other people, based on their diets. If they didn't know that information going into smell the sweat samples, then that's interesting. So the next time I'm on a date with a hot guy, I'll say ...''You seem to have such carotenoid rich skin, that's the ONLY reason I said yes to this date.'' Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I would assume not, as it is pretty elementary to exclude bias by doings trials such as this "blind". But diet certainly affects body odour. Anyone who has been to the Indian subcontinent will know that. And, famously, the Chinese think Europeans smell like corpses, due to the milk products we eat.
Er, by the way, wegs, I eat lots of salad - virtually live on it.......Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I just knew there was something special about you that set you apart from all the other men, here. Lettuce be real.......... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Have you been to a zoo lately? Which smells better - the tiger enclosure or the giraffe enclosure? I actually noticed this on myself, when I switched to a vegetarian diet - even after construction work, I was less offensive. They don't put chlorophyll in detergent by accident.