Why does Asparagus make your pee stink?!
Why does Asparagus make your pee stink?
Enlighten me please
Answers:
Here's something interesting I found:
Dear Dr. Dave and Dr. Dee,
My boyfriend's urine smelled awful after eating asparagus. We both ate the same meal, but my urine was fine. My boyfriend says that everyone's urine smells after eating asparagus, and since mine doesn't, then I'm the strange one, not him. No one in my family has ever had urine odor from eating anything. Is he right, or might he have a problem?
Signed,
Worried
Dear Worried,
There is nothing wrong with your boyfriend. Not everyone has smelly urine shortly after eating asparagus, but many do. About half of the population will notice this odor after eating asparagus because of the sulfur-containing amino acids which break down after ingestion (see details below).
The Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board at www.asparagus.org considers asparagus to be one of the most nutritionally well-balanced vegetables, supplying significant nutrients and fiber for a healthy diet. For asparagus nutrition information, see www.asparagus.org
DETAILS: Why eating asparagus causes one's urine to have a strong, unique odor
As archived in the Boston Globe at www.boston.com, below are more details about why asparagus causes urine to have a unique odor:
Asparagus is filled with sulfur-containing amino acids that break down during digestion into six sulfur-containing compounds. These can impart a unique smell to urine as they are excreted. "It's the same sulfur group that makes skunks smell," said Barbara Hodges, a dietician with Boston University's nutrition clinic, the Evans Nutrition Group.
Scientists remain divided on why people have different urinary responses to eating asparagus. One camp thinks only about half of the population have a gene enabling us to break down the sulfurous amino acids in asparagus into their smellier components. Others think that everyone digests asparagus the same way, but only about half of us have a gene that enables us to smell the specific compounds formed in the digestion of asparagus.
"There's something of a dispute," said Dr. David Stollar, chairman of biochemistry at Tufts University Medical School.
The unusual smells are nothing to worry about, though. According to the Dictionary of Medical Syndromes, which includes an entry on the urinary excretion of odoriferous components of asparagus: "The syndrome does not have any pathological significance."