You spent $85 on a new eau de toilet (marked up a reasonable 4,500 percent), but what if that’s just not enough to cover up the fact that men smell like cheese? And ladies, the news isn’t good for you, either: Your natural stench is akin to onions and grapefuit.
That’s the conclusion of research in Switzerland that involved taking armpit sweat samples from 24 men and 25 women after they had spent time in a sauna or ridden an exercise bike for 15 minutes.
The researchers found marked differences in the sweat from men and women. “Men smell of cheese, and women of grapefruit or onion,” says Christian Starkenmann of Firmenich, a company in Geneva that researches flavours and perfumes for food and cosmetics companies.
The team found that the women’s armpit sweat contained relatively high levels of an odourless sulphur-containing compound – 5 milligrams per millilitre of sweat versus 0.5 milligrams in men. When the researchers mixed this compound in the lab with bacteria commonly found in the armpit, the bugs turned it into a thiol – a previously discovered odour from armpits that is akin to onion.
“The more sulphur precursor we added, the more intense was the malodour,” says Starkenmann, whose team’s results appear in Chemical Senses (DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjn076). Bacterial enzymes turn the otherwise odourless precursor into the malodour.
The men, meanwhile, had relatively high levels of an odourless fatty acid which turned into a cheesy odour when exposed to the same types of bacteria.
The balance of oniony to cheesy precursors in women’s sweat made it smell worse than men’s as rated by independent smell assessors.
[New Scientist; Photo: BWE]
petted
Is there any bacteria that make sweat smell good or have J&J, Arm & Hammer, & Old Spice put a lid on that sort of research?
Dubwise
wow…independent smell assessors…that must be the best and worst job EVAR!
Marty
I read a novel earlier this year (“Perfume”, I think) that described the way men smell as similar to parmesan cheese. I think that’s accurate to some degree, and also do not think it is a bad thing. At all. =)
Cam
Well all this article REALLY told us is what women and men in Switzerland smell like.
kevin
wow. i feel so ashamed for having read the whole article and not stopping myself when i realized it was utterly uninteresting.
Scudder
I’ve always noted a cumin or cedar like odor to a man’s perspiration…which I find kinda sensual. If my guy smelled like cheese, I’d push him into the shower.
Distingué Traces
Does it mean some girls smell like onions, and some like grapefruit, or is it some kind of onion/grapefruit melange?
I like the smell of grapefruit. I also like gorgonzola.
carter
great, we all smell like a friggin taco…pass the hot sauce.
mike
haha women smell worse than men! EWW SMELLY ARMPITTED WOMEN