Answers » Categories » Food & Cooking

Does Eating Asparagus Change Urine Odor?

If you eat Asparagus will it change the odor of your urine?


1 Answer

0 
There are a lot of foods that has an effect on the urine odor and one of these is asparagus. Asparagus is often noted as a vegetable that creates a pungent odor to the urine. Luckily, not everyone has the same effect. This is because not everyone has the same chemical component in the body that allows the urine to smell like rotten eggs after ingesting asparagus.

According to the experts, not everyone develops the strange odor in urine and not everyone can smell it. Studies have indicated that there are only 50% of people who were tested and develop a strong urine odor as well as not everyone has the ability to detect the scent the sulphurus fumes emitted from the urine after ingesting asparagus. Genetics is the culprit for such phenomena. Since each and everyone are unique, each person has a different genetic make-up. Some people have the ability to smell the fumes from the asparagus-laced urine because they have the correct gene in their body to allow them such. Similarly, not everyone has the ability to breakdown components from the asparagus that allows the vegetable to change the urine odor.

Although most of the time, people who develops a strong urine odor after eating asparagus can also smell the strong scent, there are times wherein some can excrete pungent urine but lacks the ability to detect the scent and vice versa.

People shouldn’t worry about this phenomenon because it is completely harmless. Asparagus is a nutritious food that is affected by different chemical compounds in the body that may affect the scent of our metabolic wastes. Just like skunks, the body has an enzyme called mercaptan that combines with the digested asparagus and forms the bad urine odor. Thioesters could be the culprit too as well as asparagusic acid that are created after certain enzymes mix with the ingested asparagus. Once these compounds are mixed with the food, the result could be the pungent and strong-smelling urine.

Answer this question

by Anonymous - Already have an account? Login now!
Your Name:

Your Answer:
Source(s): (optional)

Enter the text you see in the image below
What do you see?
Can't read the image? View a new one.
Your answer will appear after being approved.

Ask your own question