Q: I’m convinced that fragrance is a way to a woman’s heart. How can I improve this, naturally?
A: Easy. Through the age-old principle of “you are what you eat,” you can improve how you smell (and therefore, how attractive you are to women” by simply improving your diet.
INTRODUCTION
- In a study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, a team of researchers concluded that women can pick up quite a bit of information through how a man smells.
- Previous research has already concluded that women can actually get a sense of a man’s genetics through odor, and it has also been shown that women use their sense of smell when seeking a mate.
- Taking this a step further, these researchers pointed out that a person’s diet influences how they smell – particularly through his or her sweat glands.
- Most people know, for instance, that eating garlic can result in an unfortunate odor that tends to stick around.
- Research has also shown that foods like red meat, eggs, cheese, soy, fruit, and vegetables can also change the way a man’s sweat smells.
- So, the researchers wanted to go further and see if died could actually change how attractive, healthy, and likeable a man’s scent is to women.
- If you’re skeptical, keep reading. There’s some solid science here.
EXPERIMENT
PREPARATION:
- First, a group of men’s scents were prepared for judging.
- To do this, the researchers recruited a group of 43 male “donors” who agreed to participate in the study.
- The donors varied greatly on their diet. They were surveyed on the kinds of foods they tended to eat. They were screened to exclude anyone who had a disease or condition that might interfere with the study.
- The donors were given a 48-hour period in which they were asked to bathe using only water and not to wear any scented product on their bodies.
- During this period, they were given a plain t-shirt to wear as a first layer of clothing. They were also instructed to exercise for at least an hour in the t-shirt.
- After the period, the t-shirt was sealed in a bag and frozen for analysis.
- The researchers took the t-shirt samples and made scented samples from them that could be given to raters.
- The donors were also rated on skin quality, which is an indicator of healthy diet.
RATING:
- Then, the researchers recruited 9 female participants to serve as judges.
- Their age was 18-30 years.
- They were screened for any problem that might interfere with their senses of smell.
- Then, the judges smelled each sample and rated the odor quality on a few descriptors. There were some basic ratings of the quality of the samples, but they also included:
Liking
Attractiveness
Health
Intensity
RESULTS
- The researchers then analyzed the correlations in the data.
- First, Liking, Attractiveness, and Health were so highly correlated that they were merged into a single statistic.
- This suggests that men who smelled healthy, also smelled attractive and were rated as more “liked” by the female judges. All three of these go together!
- Second, men who had a higher fruit and vegetable intake (as measured by skin quality) smelled better/more attractive/more likable than those who didn’t.
- Other foods that improved a man’s smell:
Eggs
Tofu
Oils and fats
Meats
Foods that made a man’s smell worse:
Seafood
Carbohydrates
CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION
- This research suggests that the way you smell is signaling something to the woman you’re with.
- It’s an honest way to communicate your overall health.
- Men who smell healthy are rated as more attractive. This is consistent with previous research (and common sense) that suggests that women find overall health to be an attractive quality.
- Thus, improving one’s diet, particularly by adding fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, tofu, oils, and fats (presumably the healthy kind) will improve your health, your skin tone, and how attractive-smelling you are.
- The oils and fats part was surprising to the researchers. However, they hypothesized that this may be because increased oil and fats consumption leads to higher carotenoids absorption (good chemicals found in fruits and vegetables).
- If that’s true, then you get more out of oils and fats when consumed with fruits and vegetables.
- This also suggests that you should lay off the seafood and carbs leading up to a date.
Reference
Zuniga, A., Stevenson, R. J., Mahmut, M. & Stephen, I. D. (2017). Diet quality and the attractiveness of male body odor. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, 136-143. Link: https://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(16)30193-3/abstract
