Garlic has sweat smell of success on a date
Men should forget the aftershave and eat garlic if they want to attract the opposite sex, scientists have said. A study found that the sweat of men who had eaten the bulb smelt more attractive to women, possibly because of the health benefits it has provided to men in evolutionary terms.
MEN should forget the aftershave and try eating some garlic instead, scientists have suggested.
A study found that the sweat of men who had eaten the bulb smelt more attractive to women.
The researchers suggested that women may have evolved to prefer the type of smell that eating garlic produces in armpit sweat, because it suggests the person is healthy. Garlic has antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal properties and studies have suggested it can help reduce the incidence of colds and even high blood pressure and some cancers.
Or, it could be that the antibacterial action of the garlic makes the armpits smell sweeter by reducing the density of the microbes that cause unpleasant odours, the researchers from the Uni- versity of Stirling in Scotland and Charles University in Prague said.
“Breath odour plays a crucial role in most social interactions, but human axillary [armpit] odour is also an important factor in intimate relationships,” the researchers wrote in the journal Appetite.
“Our results indicate that garlic consumption may have positive effects on perceived body odour hedonicity [the pleasure derived from it], perhaps due to its health effects.
“From an evolutionary perspective, formation of preferences for diet-associated body odours was possibly shaped by means of sexual selection.
“Previous research indicates that many animal species use diet-associated cues to select mates in good physical condition.”
The researchers did concede, how- ever, that eating garlic to try to attract a woman might have some drawbacks.
“Obviously, garlic negatively influences the individuals’ breath on account of sulphur-containing gases,” they said – but added that the compounds contributing to garlic odour might not reach the skin glands in perceptible quantities.
For the study, 42 men were asked to eat, in rotation, raw garlic, garlic capsules, or no garlic, and wear pads in their armpits for 12 hours afterwards to collect body odour.
Then, 82 women were asked to sniff the odour samples and judge them on their pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity and intensity.
The body odour of the men was perceived to be “significantly more attractive and less intense” when they had eaten the garlic in bulb and capsule form. The effect only came into play once the men were eating a substantial amount of garlic, the researchers found.
In the first experiment, when the men ate 6g of garlic – the equivalent of two cloves – with bread and cheese, there was no difference in the ratings from when they just ate the bread and cheese. But when the dosage was doubled to 12g, the men were judged to smell more attractive than when they had not eaten garlic.
In the third experiment, when the men ate 12g of garlic in capsule form, their odour was also perceived as more attractive.
Previous studies have shown that garlic consumption can affect the odour of breast milk, increasing the time infants spend on their mother’s breast and feeding more vigorously.