# OK, here goes my first dangerously sensitive question...but I really want to know! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2000, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652 "2000-09-26T20:18:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/1 "2000-09-26T20:18:44Z")
Do different races have different propensities for body odor? In Alex Haley’s novel/historical account **Roots** the author says that when Kunte Kinte arrived in America, the combined odor of the white men amassed on the dockside nearly bowled him over. Granted, I supposed that everybody more or less stank in 1750, but was there such a difference between one race and another? Or was it not a question of degree, but of quality, so that anyone of any race might be less likely to notice odor in people of their own race as opposed to different races? ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/2 "2000-09-26T20:30:30Z")
Differences appear to be cultural, mostly. Some cultures just don’t believe in bathing as often as others, and of course they are going to have more body odor. Diet also effects body odor, in Vietnam some G.I.s started eating Vietnamese food because the Cong could find Americans by smell in the dense jungle. I’ve noticed that blacks in America often have a strong sweet smell to their body odor, which I think is related to their using more and different lotions than whites (because dry black skin gets an ‘ashy’ look to it). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/3 "2000-09-26T20:59:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Diet also effects body odor, In my experience, this is the really big factor. When I was in Europe, I could notice definite differences among the guys from the U.S. who selected foods closer to what I grew up eating, guys from Belgium eating the local cuisine exclusively, and guys from South America or the Caribbean who brought their diets with them. (These were among guys who worked out–and therefore showered–daily.) The guys from South America who simply ate Flemish dorm food smelled more like the Flemish kids among who we were living than the guys who had their own apartments where they could prepare their Brazilian or Colombian cuisine. I was not eating at the U.S. dorm, and I immediately noticed a change in the odor of my urine. I would guess that my sweat smelled different, as well, but I didn’t notice that as much. There may be some small physiological differences among different peoples in how their sweat is produced, but I’d bet that diet affects that more than anything. ---
**Author:** ![tshirts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@tshirts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirts)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/4 "2000-09-26T21:01:36Z")
Back in college, we had a couple of dozen Nigerian exchange students live in my dorm. The first week the odor would send people running from any closed area, like an elevator. By the end of the first week, ALL of them smelled nice, usually not smelling at all, but sometimes with the scent of popular aftershaves. It was simply a question of being made conscious of the cultural differences by their sponsors. There was obviously no inherited element. ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/5 "2000-09-26T21:25:30Z")
Whites tend to have more body hair than Asians and blacks, and I think this probably also contributes to body odor. ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/6 "2000-09-26T21:35:34Z")
Aparently carnivores are more likely to have a strong body odour after exercising or if they shower irregularly. As a vegetarian, I have no inclination to test this. Has anyone here, or anyone you know, had changes in their body odour after adding or removing meat from their diet? ---
**Author:** ![tomas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tomas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/7 "2000-09-26T22:02:46Z")
Perhaps this was Haley’s subtle way of showing the cultural shock of this man’s dillema. Just the smells of this strange land were over-powering. Espescially true when you consider that bathing was actually considered unhealthy in some cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/8 "2000-09-26T23:13:03Z")
Oh, no desire to offend meat-eaters on the board. In fact, I have never noticed any particularly strong odour amongs my friends, but was just wondering whether it was that I had no reference point (not knowing any other vegetarians) or perhaps that they are all very clean people who shower frequently. The idea that there is an odour associated with eating meat, however, is something I noticed in a few books, so I thought it’d be nice to get the Straight Dope® ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/9 "2000-09-27T03:06:03Z")
I think that body odor is for the most part the result of bacteria that thrive in those warm most areas. If there are differences in body odors, then that might imply that different races attract different bacteria, or at least higher concentrations. For my own experiences, I have many, many times smelled someone (who hadn’t bathed in a while) before I saw them–and I was never able to tell what race they were just by smell. A stanky-ass Whitey and a stanky-ass Black both stank. Just that simple. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/10 "2000-09-27T17:20:53Z")
Amongst cyclists and other cardio-vascular athletic sports it’s quite common to take garlic capsules which are swallowed whole(some have the garlic pong removed) It seems to reduce susceptability to chest infections and I reckon it worked for me. I found that it caused a change in my odour especially noticeable when I was on a couple of rest days and, presumably, not producing as much sweat with which to dilute it. ---
**Author:** ![SqrlCub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/11 "2000-09-27T17:51:14Z")
Kyberneticist, I have noticed that too when I was going back and forth from vegetarianism to omnivorism. When I ate only vegetables there was still an odor but it was sweeter smelling. I also notice that with my omni-veg-omnivore friends. HUGs! Sqrl ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2000, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/12 "2000-09-27T21:21:02Z")
I am with the “it’s mostly diet” camp. As most Westerners who have travelled in Japan know, the Japanese think we smell funny. I have heard of people on crowded trains choosing to stand rather than sit next to a Westerner. I brought this subject up with some Japanese friends, and eventually managed to get them to admit that Westerners tend to have an unpleasant “sour milk” smell. Since the typical Asian diet contains little dairy, they were unused to the scent of people who frequently eat dairy products. If I remember correctly there’s a part in Maxine Hong’s “The Woman Warrior” where a Chinese woman visits her Chinese-American relatives and, noticing their smell, surreptitiously tries to see if they’ve all spilled milk on themselves. People from different cultures have also traditionally used different sorts of things to wash with, such as herbs and soaps of various kinds. These would naturally leave different scents on the body after washing. Nowdays I suspect that people in urban areas around the world use pretty much the same sorts of hygeine products, but this certainly wouldn’t have been the case in 1750. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2000, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/13 "2000-09-27T23:03:26Z")
Diet is a big factor in body smell and so is general health. I’m one of the unfortunate people who can smell sour milk days before it offends anyone else. I can also “sniff” out diabetics and a few other health problems. I’d say alcohol consumption may have a lot to do with it, because the smell of someone who drinks every day is also obvious to me. ---
**Author:** ![mellonhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@mellonhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mellonhead)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/14 "2000-09-27T23:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyberneticist \* > \*\* > As a vegetarian, I have no inclination to test this. > Has anyone here, or anyone you know, had changes in their body odour after adding or removing meat from their diet? \*\* I’m a meat eater. I can’t smell myself…but my boyfirend’s a meat eater, and I can smell him! There is an “after-smell” when you eat meat and I’ve observed it’s most noticable after one eats red meat. Don’t know why - it just happens. I’ve also noticed my veggie friends don’t usually have that “meat-eaters smell”…but I can’t always tell over the garlic;) ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-here-goes-my-first-dangerously-sensitive-question-but-i-really-want-to-know/34652/15 "2000-09-28T03:49:15Z")
My TA from Environmental Science last semester spent the summer in his family home in Cyprus, and came home the night before class started. OH MY GOD did he stink for the first two weeks or so. GAG. No one in the class could be near him he smelled _so freaking bad._ The smell got less and less over the course of the class, and by the end of the class, he smelled of cologne, and we could easily be near him. I suppose it was a mix of not being accustomed to showering daily in Cyprus (from what I can tell, they didn’t have running water) and a drastically altered diet over the summer. As his habits and diet readjusted to American life, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad smell went away. BTW, I can’t smell my meat or sour milk. Hmmm, that’s sad. –Tim