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Asparagus pee: Why does it smell that way?

Asparagus

If you are a fan of asparagus, then you have already experienced the distiasparagusnct smell of urine that comes with this food’s digestion. Medical News Today published an article on it. I have shared the main points in this blog post.

In fact, the first mention of the distinctive smell after asparagus consumption dates back to the 11th century. As Stephen C. Mitchell, from the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, explained in an article published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, “[…] the Ancients thought asparagus had medicinal properties” and took “[…] its odor-producing qualities as proof of its activity.”

At the heart of the issue is the conundrum of which chemical compound is to blame for the smell; no one really knows.

High levels of asparagusic acid are thought to protect the young asparagus shoots from parasites hungry for a tasty snack.

The chemical structure of asparagusic acid is highly resistant to degradation by cooking, leaving our gut in charge of breaking it down.

Whether it is, in fact, asparagusic acid, methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide, or another compound remains to be seen. Whatever the chemical basis, the reason why some of us find the smell of asparagus pee offensive and some do not lies in our genes.

Last year, Medical News Todayreported on a study published in The BMJ that identified changes in the genes responsible for smell, called olfactory receptor genes, between the sniffers and the non-sniffers.

The study involved 6,909 men and women and showed that a whopping 60 percent had asparagus anosmia.

Stay tuned to our blog for more great content like this one!

 

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