大蒜使人变香说起体味，我们最多能想到的是夏季出汗后，短袖上散发的气味，或是在早高峰拥挤地铁车厢里偶然出现的一丝狐臭。这是因为东亚人群（包括中国、日本、韩国等）中约80%~95%的人携带一种ABCC11基因上的特定变异，这一变异会显著减少腋下大汗腺分泌的体味前体物质，导致天然体味通常较为轻淡清新，狐臭发生率极低......

本文来自微信公众号： 环球科学科研圈 ，作者：领研网，原文标题：《多吃大蒜，反而能让男性闻起来更“迷人”｜科学60秒》

大蒜使人变香

说起体味，我们最多能想到的是夏季出汗后，短袖上散发的气味，或是在早高峰拥挤地铁车厢里偶然出现的一丝狐臭。这是因为东亚人群（包括中国、日本、韩国等）中约80%~95%的人携带一种ABCC11基因上的特定变异，这一变异会显著减少腋下大汗腺分泌的体味前体物质，导致天然体味通常较为轻淡清新，狐臭发生率极低，也较少依赖强效除臭剂。

而在欧美人群中，这一变异极为罕见，不足3%，大多数人天生体味较为明显且持久。因此，西方社会对“体味管理”格外重视，从古代起，他们就常用香料“优化”气味，直到现代，对个人体味的管理甚至被视为西方社交礼仪的关键，并由此催生出规模庞大的除臭剂与香水产业。

2024年末，曾出演热门剧集《德里女孩》（Derry Girls）和《布里奇顿》（Bridgerton）并因此走红的女演员妮可拉·考夫兰（Nicola Coughlan），在被问及与《神秘博士》（Doctor Who）中第15任博士的饰演者、非裔演员舒提·盖特瓦（Ncuti Gatwa）的合作时，她脱口而出：“他很出色，而且很好闻。”或许，我们不仅是“视觉动物”，也同样是“嗅觉动物”。

抛开品种繁多、功能各异的香体产品不谈，我们每个人都有独特的天然体味。而除了健康状况和卫生习惯等因素，已经有多项研究表明，饮食选择同样会显著影响一个人的“原生”体味。

这一领域尚属前沿，相关数据才刚刚积累，暂时难以得出明确的结论。目前已知的是，饮食与体味之间的关系并非“吃了甜食，闻起来就甜”这样简单直接，因为食物在进入人体后，还要经过复杂的消化过程。影响体味的，正是食物消化后产生的挥发性化合物：一部分经呼气逸出，另一部分则进入血液再随汗液排出。

比如，一项十年前发表于《食欲》杂志（Appetite）的研究就发现，让许多人又爱又恨的大蒜，可能反而会从体味层面提升男性对女性的“吸引力”。

捷克查理大学（Charles University）的研究团队让42名男性在12小时内佩戴可以收集汗液的腋下汗垫。并将他们分为三组：一组不吃大蒜，一组食用6克大蒜（约2~3瓣），还有一组食用12克大蒜（约4~6瓣）。随后，研究人员又找来82名女性，要求她们分别对收集到的汗液气味样本进行愉悦度、吸引力、男性气概和强度评分。

实验结果显示，少量食用大蒜组的男性体味未发生明显变化，但大量食用大蒜的男性，其体味被女性评价为更愉悦、更有吸引力且更不浓烈。这个出乎意料的发现让研究人员都感到困惑，他们重复了三次实验，才敢确认结论。

一种散发难闻气味的食物为何会让体味变得更“诱人”？科学家推测，这种现象可能源于一种进化层面的潜意识信号。大蒜富含抗氧化剂和抗菌成分，是公认的健康食品。因此，食用大蒜后体味的变化，可能向外界传递出“此人健康状况良好”的信号。从进化角度看，选择健康的伴侣有利于繁衍后代，因此，吃过大蒜后散发的体味会被异性感知为更具吸引力。

如果想借体味赢点“好感”，可以多吃点大蒜，但别忘了刷牙……

大蒜对体味的影响与一些覆盖更广泛食谱的研究不谋而合。一项澳大利亚麦考瑞大学（Macquarie University）主导的研究发现，日常饮食中富含水果和蔬菜的男性，其汗液闻起来更“芬芳”，甚至会被女性形容为带有更多果香、花香和甜味，更具吸引力。与大蒜的健康益处类似，这些健康的饮食习惯同样可能通过体味这一更微妙的渠道传递给异性。

不过，饮食带来的气味也会通过排气、排泄得到体现，比如吃芦笋后尿液气味会变得有点奇怪，有些蔬菜还会让人胀气。但从汗液来看，多吃蔬菜水果确实会让人变得更好闻。

与此相对，某些食物则可能让我们的体味变得不那么“迷人”……[查看全文]

Eat more garlic to smell attractive?The surprising ways diet can shape your body scent

Kendra Pierre-Louis:ForScientific American’sScience Quickly,I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis,in for Rachel Feltman.

In late 2024 Nicola Coughlan,the actor famous for her work on Derry Girls and Bridgerton,was asked about her work with Ncuti Gatwa,who played the 15th Doctor on Doctor Who.Her reply was:“He’s amazing—and he smells amazing.”

Look,I get it.How someone smells,whether it’s good or bad,can leave a long-lasting impression.That’s why we pour so much money into scented bath washes,deodorants and perfumes.

But under all of those products remains our natural scent.And while factors such as illness and how often we bathe can affect that smell,so can food,according to a number of studies.

Freelance science journalist Sofia Quaglia has covered this research,and we spoke to her about the surprising ways what we eat can affect how we smell.Here’s that conversation.

Thank you so much for joining us today.So is it,like,if I eat a lot of jelly beans,I’ll start smelling sweet?[Laughs.]

Sofia Quaglia:[Laughs.]I don’t think—no,it’s not that clear-cut.So obviously,caveat here is that this is a very new field,and so we’re only starting to collect data.We don’t have that much data that we can really draw really,really good lines about,like,“Smelling sweet is because you’ve eaten sweet stuff,”or“Smelling sour is because you’ve eaten sour stuff.”

And in general it’s not really that straightforward of a process,right,’cause the food goes through our body and gets digested inside our gut.And then either we’re smelling because our breath smells a certain way because of the volatile chemicals coming back up from our gut,or because they’ve gone through our bloodstream and we’re sweating them out,right?So the sugars and the foods and the delicious jelly beans go through a lot of processes before they affect how we smell.[Laughs.]

Pierre-Louis:One of the things that I found surprising in your article was the work that researchers did on the way garlic makes bodies smell.Can you talk about that work?

Quaglia:Yeah,I love that.So obviously,we all love to eat garlic;it makes things super tasty.But then our breath doesn’t smell exactly as delicious afterwards.[Laughs.]I know a lot of people wouldn’t fancy a kiss with garlic-smelling breath.And so researchers—it’s one of the reasons researchers targeted it,right?They’re like,“Oh,it’s the most annoying of the smells when you’re,when you’re smelling it on somebody’s breath.Let’s see what happens to body odor after garlic,”right?

And so the researchers actually had about 40 men wear some armpit pads—like,yeah,like,absorbent pads under their armpits—collecting their sweat for about 12 hours.And then they made some of them eat a little bit of garlic,some of them eat loads of garlic,and some of them take some,like,garlic supplements.

Then they had[about]80 women rate the scent from those pads,which is kind of gross if you think about it too much.[Laughs.]

Pierre-Louis:Yeah,how do you sign up for that study?[Laughs.]

Quaglia:I have not.I did not sign up for this.

And then the women basically had to rate the men’s smell,right,according to,like,subjective ratings that—of how they felt,whether they were pleasant and attractive or masculine and intense.So they filled out a survey.

And the findings suggested that the men with a little bit of garlic consumption weren’t making these women react in any particular way,but those eating a lot of garlic were perceived as very sexy,so their rankings for sexiness went up.So the smell of garlic under the armpit was smelling good[Laughs],was smelling delicious,was smelling sexy.

The researchers themselves,I spoke to them when—after they conducted the study.They were quite confused,too.They were like,“We had to do this three times’cause we didn’t think the data made sense,”right?You would expect garlic to smell nasty under an armpit as well.So they were also confused and surprised,and they thought it was quite funny to have this data.

And they’ve actually thought long and hard about it,and their theory right now is that,you know,maybe—because garlic is,is a good food for your health,right?It’s a healthy food.It has a lot of antioxidants.It has a lot of antimicrobial properties that improve people’s health.Maybe that’s what’s making someone smell subconsciously more sexy.It’s because,you know,we’ve evolved to select romantic partners or sexual partners that are healthy because of the way that evolution works and how our bodies are wired to think about,like,“Oh,we need to procreate.”So maybe that’s what’s going on?This evolutionary lens is how the scientists have been trying to explain it.

Pierre-Louis:So the solution is:eat a garlic-heavy diet,but really make sure to brush your teeth.

Quaglia:Exactly.Brush your teeth,and then just go around with your armpits kind of just,like...

Pierre-Louis:[Laughs.]

Quaglia:Musty.[Laughs.]

Pierre-Louis:You can’t see Sofia[Laughs],but she’s lifting up her arms to,to illustrate her armpits to us.

But the garlic research did sort of fall in line with the broader research that suggested eating a lot of fruits and veggies tends to make us smell better,at least from a sweat perspective.It can be,depending on how gassy you are as a human,it could be hit or miss with your GI track and your breath.But when it comes to sweat in particular it does seem that,like,lots of fruit,lots of veg are pretty good for us.

Quaglia:Yeah,so while maybe our pee smells a little weird after we have asparagus or we can get a little gassy after some,some veggies,similar studies where they had kind of people wear sweat pads and stuff—I think this one was done in Australia—found that the men who were eating more fruits and vegetables were kind of smelling better.They were smelling more fruity,more floral,more sweet,and kind of more widely,yeah,the fruits and veg were making them more attractive to women who were smelling their scent.

And again,researchers kind of justify that by saying,“Okay,well,it’s probably because,you know,veggies,fruits,they’re healthy for our diet,they make our bodies healthy and strong,and so that’s maybe what our body scent is then subconsciously communicating.”

But again,these are really small studies with small samples,so we don’t have,like,loads of data.But all in all,it seems to be that there’s a trend or a pattern here.

Pierre-Louis:Are there foods that—or things that we consume that may make us less appealing,like,smell less great?

Quaglia:Although there isn’t a lot of data and we’re just starting to see emerging trends,researchers have started to see a little bit of patterns on stuff that are making us smell a little bit less pleasant...[full transcript]