# Do any other foods have the "cilantro" effect? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635 "2016-06-06T02:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Brodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brodi)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/1 "2016-06-06T02:47:32Z")
Due to some people’s genetic makeup [cilantro tastes like soap.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/why-does-cilantro-taste-bad-like-soap_n_7653808.html) Are there any other foods or drinks that, because of a person’s genes, tastes “off” to them? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/2 "2016-06-06T04:55:36Z")
[Supertasters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster) have an much greater aversion to a range of bitter foods, and in some cases rate foods as bitter that other people don’t. Being a supertaster is related to a gene variant that allows them to taste PTC and PROP (and possibly other chemicals), which are tasteless to most people. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/3 "2016-06-06T06:02:52Z")
It’s not quite _taste_. but as smell and taste are so closely related, I’m claiming this one: Asparagus makes your urine smell funky within a quite short time of eating it. Some people can’t smell this at all. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/4 "2016-06-06T06:10:04Z")
There’s a whole class of vegetables–including cauliflower, broccoli, and probably asparagus–that just smell like raw sewage to me. Now obviously I’ve eaten broccoli et al. and have not eaten raw sewage (is that obvious? I hope that is obvious), and once it’s cooked and on a plate I can kind of handle the taste for awhile, but I’m not particularly fond and I can’t eat a lot of it. On my own I would never even buy these vegetables, but my husband loves them. I like cilantro, though. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/5 "2016-06-06T09:55:38Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It’s not quite _taste_. but as smell and taste are so closely related, I’m claiming this one: > > Asparagus makes your urine smell funky within a quite short time of eating it. Some people can’t smell this at all. It only makes _some_ peoples’ urine smell funky, not everyone’s. Whether it funkifies your urine or not is a genetic trait. The people who say they can’t smell it probably are not being funkified. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/6 "2016-06-06T10:43:22Z")
From what I read here, Brussel sprouts is an other example. Some people can taste their bitter taste, others can’t. Apparently, it’s genetics, but it’s not related to being a supertaster, who would notice all “weird” tastes in all foods. I notice the foul taste of cilantro, but I don’t feel the bitter taste of Brussel sprouts. ---
**Author:** ![storyguide3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@storyguide3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyguide3)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/7 "2016-06-06T11:14:09Z")
I am guessing (and Wikipedia seems to agree, though not footnoted), that durian may be another of these foods. For some folks, such as my wife and step-daughter, it is sweet ambrosia. For others, such as my doomed self, it smells like an open sewer full of rotting fruit and tastes like I would assume that sewer would taste. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/8 "2016-06-06T12:15:52Z")
Most people from Japan say root beer tastes like medicine. This is probably cultural rather than genetic; some common [medicines in Japan smell like root beer](http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/11/21/why-almost-all-japanese-people-hate-root-beer/), apparently because they use methyl salicylate. How well established is the cilantro thing, by the way? All articles seem to point to one specific paper. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/9 "2016-06-06T12:59:10Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The people who say they can’t smell it probably are not being funkified. In most cases, they probably are. Here’s an article from [Smithsonian.com](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-asparagus-makes-your-urine-smell-49961252/) > [@](#): > > Overall, scientists now conclude that most of the difference is in perception—that is, if your urine doesn’t seem to smell any differently after you eat asparagus, it’s likely that you simply can’t perceive the sulfurous compounds’ foul odor, but there’s a small chance it’s because your body digests asparagus in a way that reduces the concentration of these chemicals in your urine. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/10 "2016-06-06T13:34:04Z")
That Wikipedia article, long ago, used to be really helpful but now is much shorter and leaves out a lot of stuff. Esp. in terms of the many different types of supertasters. Some people are sensitive to fats and alcohol. The current article doesn’t mention fats at all and mainly mentions alcohol in relation to other bitterness factors like hops. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/11 "2016-06-06T13:50:08Z")
I’ve heard that cucumber is another. To some it has a strong taste and to others it’s just watery. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/12 "2016-06-06T14:01:13Z")
It’s worth noting that miracle berries (Synsepalum dulcificum) can alter your sense of taste. A protein in the berries temporarily suppresses your ability to taste sour flavors. Presumably some people have a permanent condition similar to this and cannot taste some flavors that other people can. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/13 "2016-06-06T14:04:13Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > I’ve heard that cucumber is another. To some it has a strong taste and to others it’s just watery. For me, cucumber is intensely flavored. And watermelon tastes like cucumber with sugar on it. But I am far from a supertaster. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/14 "2016-06-06T14:08:20Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > In most cases, they probably are. Here’s an article from [Smithsonian.com](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-asparagus-makes-your-urine-smell-49961252/) My mother and her mother do not funkify. Her father and sister do, as does everybody on the paternal side of my family. And we do not have so many bathrooms that we wouldn’t be able to tell; the no-funkifiers can smell the other side’s funk and we can verify that they do not leave that… “someone ate asparagus” cloud behind. Who knows, maybe “reaction to asparagus” is one of those markers for ancestry 🙂 Sign me up as someone to whom cucumber tastes very strongly (“repeats” a lot too, I’m still tasting it several days after eating it); it gets diminished by curing it in salt, but I don’t care enough about it to do that. And melon? My mother and one of my brothers can be swearing up and down that a certain melon is sweet as molasses, the other brother and I will be saying it tastes like raw cucumber and to kindly keep that thing away from us. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/15 "2016-06-06T14:19:58Z")
I was relieved to read a few years back about how people can sense the taste of truffles very differently from most. I’m pretty adventurous with foods, like a lot of exotic tastes and so forth, but I’ve always found truffle to be revolting. Not just something I don’t care for, but revolting as if you put your dirty socks in my mouth. From the report I read back then, it’s not just a matter of preference. Like cilantro, some people actually sense the taste of truffle completely different from most people. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/16 "2016-06-06T15:54:45Z")
Most people say that celery doesn’t have much flavor, if any at all. Me, I say that celery is the taste equivalent of someone scratching their fingers down a chalkboard. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/17 "2016-06-06T16:31:57Z")
Neither my daughter nor I like the taste of fresh tomatoes, even though we enjoy the tomato in nearly every other form. We figure it’s some element in its raw make-up that puts us off. (And no, don’t tell us to try ‘your’ tomatoes, been there and done that over and over with dozens of folks. It’s the raw tomato, not the variety). ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/18 "2016-06-06T16:47:49Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Neither my daughter nor I like the taste of fresh tomatoes, even though we enjoy the tomato in nearly every other form. We figure it’s some element in its raw make-up that puts us off. (And no, don’t tell us to try ‘your’ tomatoes, been there and done that over and over with dozens of folks. It’s the raw tomato, not the variety). Are you my 24th cousin? I am 100% in your camp. But Not stewed, NO, not stewed, never !!! :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/19 "2016-06-06T16:57:37Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Neither my daughter nor I like the taste of fresh tomatoes, even though we enjoy the tomato in nearly every other form. We figure it’s some element in its raw make-up that puts us off. (And no, don’t tell us to try ‘your’ tomatoes, been there and done that over and over with dozens of folks. It’s the raw tomato, not the variety). I’m the same way. I don’t like the taste of raw tomatoes, even when they’re in something like a sandwich or a salad. But I love tomato sauce - the cooking eliminates whatever unpleasant taste there was in the raw ones. And even my family, all of whom are avid tomato eaters, have to admit I’ve given raw tomatoes a fair try on several occasions. They’re just not for me. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/20 "2016-06-06T17:12:07Z")
Banana phloem - tastes bitter to some people, not to others. I, for example, can’t taste the bitterness. I am not sure if this is because of the PTC gene or not, but I cannot taste the purportedly bitter chemical they had us taste on paper sticks in high school genetics, nor at the Science Museum a few years ago. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635.md?page=2)