If you are still looking for motivation to eat fewer carbohydrates, then you should keep reading. Apparently, women find men more attractive smelling when they eat a lot of vegetables and fruits instead of carbohydrates. That’s the conclusion of Australian researchers.
Scent and attraction
It’s not news that there is a connection between scent and attractiveness. After all, we all know that if you’re stranded on a deserted island, it’s rather silly to talk to a volleyball. Spray some Axe under your armpits and you’ll have to flee from hordes of beautiful women storming towards you in slow motion.
But even if a deodorant can isn’t coincidentally washed ashore, there are still ways on such a deserted island for a man to increase his attractiveness through his scent, depending on the available food.
Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia concluded that you can make yourself more attractive to women by eating mostly vegetables and fruits and not too many carbohydrates [1]. This immediately raises the question for me: “What is the effect when you wash ashore on an island overgrown with banana trees? After all, bananas are fruit and thus contain fructose, a sugar and therefore a carbohydrate.”
In earlier studies, the connection between scent and attractiveness has already been established. The scent would indicate the health of a potential partner, but also suggest the added value for potential offspring. For example, we are able to determine based on scent which antibodies a potential partner has. If these antibodies differ from our own antibodies, then a partner is more attractive because it strengthens the offspring with new antibodies [2].
The Australians’ research is a new indication that we use scent to assess the health and thus attractiveness of a potential partner.
Vegetables: Yellow Skin and Sweet Body Odor
The researchers determined the men’s diets in two ways. They used a spectrophotometer to examine how colors are absorbed or transmitted through the skin. The carotenoids in vegetables, the natural yellow, orange, and red pigments of vegetables, are absorbed into the skin, providing an indication of the amount of vegetables eaten. Additionally, the men were asked to record their normal eating habits in questionnaires.
Then the researchers gave the men a new t-shirt and asked them to perform a series of physical exercises.
Afterwards, women were asked to smell the t-shirts and assess the scent based on a list of 21 descriptions. The researchers noticed that some descriptions were regularly grouped based on a number of factors, both in terms of intensity and the nature of the scent. These factors were:
- Animal factor – animal, meaty, fatty
- Floral factor – floral, fruity, sweet, and medicinal
- Chemical factor – chemical or burnt
- Fishy factor – fish, egg, garlic, yeast, sour, tobacco
Comparing the results with the indication of the amount of vegetables eaten based on the skin, it became clear that men who ate more fruits and vegetables were judged to be healthy and attractive. The ‘floral’ descriptions were used for this. Apparently, they mean carbohydrates other than the sugars from fruit. This is in line with earlier findings that people with more yellow, orange, and red tones in their skin are more attractive. I wonder how this works in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America, and whether it also applies to presidential candidates.
Based on a comparison with the completed questionnaires about eating habits, it was found that men who ate a lot of meat had a more intense odor, although it was not judged as unpleasant. Men who ate a lot of carbohydrates were found to have the least attractive odor, which was also intense. Fat, meat, eggs, and tofu also led to a scent that was perceived as pleasant.
Smells fishy
However, I don’t think this should be the decisive reason to eat more vegetables and fruits and fewer (other) carbohydrates. The researchers also concluded that only 20% of the difference in odor was determined by diet. Previous studies have also shown that body odor has little to do with diet but mostly with bacteria on the skin.
In addition, there was only a small number of participants in the study.
References
- Diet quality and the attractiveness of male body odor. Zuniga, Andrea et al. Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 38, Issue 1, 136 – 143
- Kromer J, Hummel T, Pietrowski D, et al. Influence of HLA on human partnership and sexual satisfaction. Scientific Reports. 2016;6:32550. doi:10.1038/srep32550.
