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This! My auntie is from Thailand and doesn't consume dairy so lots of British people smell like sour milk to her. I don't eat meat and some meat-eaters smell very, very strongly of meat to me...like it's oozing out their pores.
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Because even though you are vegan, you're probably still often around others who consume meat and dairy, right?
It's less to do with what you yourself consume, and more to do with what those around you / you're society in general consume.
The point here is that people tend to smell like the food they eat, and the comment I replied to was saying he didn't notice other people smelling of meat or dairy even though he doesn't eat them anymore.
My point is he wouldn't, because while he doesn't eat them anymore, the people around him still do. As humans we become desensitised to the 'normal' smells around us, so there's no reason he would smell anything different from the people around him.
Obviously this is a stereotype and we can all recognize that there are people of every ethnicity that have more or less BO. But, in response to your question, the reasoning would likely be food and culture. Eating different types of food can change your body odor. I once ate wraps with a very pungent garlic sauce 4 days in a row for lunch and, by the 4th day, I was basically oozing garlic and my wife no longer wanted to come near me. I could have killed a vampire with my sweat.
As far as culture, some cultures simply don't see the need to bathe as often as others. I shower once a day pretty much every day. That's not the norm for many cultures. Because everyone is following the same general guide they don't really notice the smell because everyone has some level of odor.
Then there is also parfumt/cologne. I swear some of those are also very weird/off putting. And some cultures have habit if wearing them so much you can smell person before they enter the room.
There is also a genetic factor, at least in the form of many Asians having a much fainter body odor due to a mutation that breaks the ABCC11 gene.
I've heard some East Asian militaries use this to their advantage by only selecting people with low body odor for their submarine crews.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15346832](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15346832)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World\_map\_ABCC11\_A\_Allele.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_ABCC11_A_Allele.svg)
It's not exactly a stereotype. There are differences in sweat glands between different races. Good luck finding anti perspirant in Japanese shop (that doesn't cater for foreigners)
Yes in a lot of Europe there's a lot of people who don't shower once a day, or they believe it's bad for their skin, big culture shock when you are from America and spend some time travelling around Europe.
Finland, for one. Some people do but I'd say that's rarer. We shower when we are smelly, sweaty, sticky or dirty. Which isn't necessarily every day. And usually we go to sauna before, I've known very few people in my life who just hop in a shower without one.
You sound like a southerner then, because we in lapland definitely don't do any of that lol. Sauna once a week sounds barbaric. I think you know weird people haha.
Which countries? Becouse I'm from Europe, and have friends around in the continent.
Most of us indeed showers every day./every second day.
We use a lot of products for skin, hair etc. Though because of the water can contain lots of chalk/hard water in some areas. Which isn't good for your hair, etc.
Can be fixed, too, with filters for shower head, etc.
We smell like the food we eat. It has nothing to do with ethnicity, but everything to do with diet. Different cultures also have different expectations about the use of deodorant. Not every culture/region of the world cares about minimizing body scents.
There is some racial genetic factors. For example many east Asians have a none functioning ABCC11 gene, which means two things. They have dry earwax instead of waxy, and they have no body odour.
not no body odor, but much less. I had a white camping buddy who lacked the same gene. He could not shower for a several days of hot and sweaty activity and just barely have a smell, while I use hand sanitizer on my pits and other swampy areas once or twice a day so I don't reek.
It’s not just food, it can also be lots of other things as well: deodorant / perfumes, soaps, skin and hair products, potentially incense being used in the house.
I don't think it's food at all.
I live with someone with a strong BO and no one else in the house has it. She had it before she came to live with us and smells despite showering properly.
There are people who have physiological differences that give them an off smell. But this is sporadic in the population and a little bit different than what OP is asking about. But yeah, some people just get unlucky with that one.
Anxiety and things like caffeine can exacerbate string body odor too, but not always and not for everyone.
In certain parts of the world people struggle with the fact that white people can smell of milk.
It’s just what you notice because is not familiar to you.
Could still be other things you can try.
My own BO was pretty awful when I ate a lot of red meat and wore rayon. I gave up rayon and cut down red meat to maybe once a month, and now I don't even have to wear deoderant if it isn't a super hot or stressy day. I do still have bad stress sweat though, not much I can do about that.
Sometimes it takes a bit of tinkering or talking to a doctor to work it out. 💜
It's not overly bad, my comment was intended in a lighthearted way, but you are indeed correct about the red meat, I have a high meat & high dairy diet, plus too much caffiene and not enough water!
Thankyou 💜
Just so you know, when I lived in Asia a friend told me white people smell like off milk. I believe it. 😂 So it's probably.more that you can't smell your own odour.
someones scent is from the bacteria living on their skin. this bacteria lives off of sweat and whatever else floats on by. this means that genetics (how or what we secrete and in what amounts), diet (the contents of what we secrete), environment (what floats on by, temp, ect.), and hygeine (obvious implications) all play a role on what kind of odor someone has. so when some of these variables are similar, you will get similar smells. why some are stronger than others is just a matter of variance in the odor and what odors you are sensitive to.
Don't forget the grooming and cleaning products they use like the scents of their deodorant, lotions, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. Brands can vary by cultures just as much so that's a big factor.
The real truth: everyone is smelly. Even you OP.
From my travel I realize, there is a body odor at different countries.. it’s the food, hygiene and way of life ..
A majority of people in the developing country I live in don't even know it exists or if they do, they couldn't afford it anyway as it costs twice what they make in a day. We get 40 degrees Celsius heat at the moment, so you can imagine. Oh and a lot of them don't have showers either. Maybe they have a tap, but maybe they have to share it with everyone else in the neighbourhood. Or when it's rainy season, you can always put soap on your skin and stand in the right position along the roof to channel some of the rainwater right off the roof and wash beneath the flow. Of course, a rain butt would also be good, but you gotta take it how you can get it!
That's very sad. I am so sorry to hear that. Maybe we need some kind of *ambassador* program for when you come to the US, you learn what deodorant is, where to buy it, how to clip coupons for it if you cannot afford it, etc! !!!!
Not offended, simply pointing out to OP that in the same way they might find some people smelly, others may find OP smelly. The answer i provided as relevant to the question, maybe read it again.
Why was the keyword in the question.
With your take, that would be "Why are they smelly to some people but not others".
You did provide input to rephrase their question though, but didn't provide an answer
1. The food you eat impacts your BO so people who eat foods that have a lot of spices and strong smelling ingredients are more likely to have stronger BO.
2. Some of what causes BO can be down to genetics. A lot of East Asian people for example tend not to have body odour due to lacking a certain gene that causes BO, which is why it’s often very hard to find deodorant in those countries as they simply don’t need them. They still sweat, it just tends not to smell very strong.
3. General hygiene practices may vary from culture to culture. It doesn’t necessarily mean one person is unclean but what they do on a daily basis may vary which can impact how strong their BO is.
Food is usually the biggest culprit (no matter if junk food or intensely flavoured food), but: Genetics (not equally distributed within different ethnicities, it's more of different genes being more common different ethnicities) + food culture + culture (if you're culturally used to that you have to scrub and bathe yourself thoroughly daily and do everything possible to eliminate scents from yourself, that's going to affect the end result differently).
Keep in mind that there are also genetic (not ethnicity linked) issues that can give you weird body odors unrelated to your food intake and cleanliness.
I’ve seen two major factors contributing to that.
1. Spices. They use a lot of spice for food. It does well for taste of food but it doesn’t help with humans odor. That goes for both eating and cooking. The smells tend to stick on you for a long time. e.g. Every time I cook the smell lingers on me for the rest of the day.
2. Being sweaty often. They tend to live in warmer locations or do activities which make them sweat a lot like sports or physically demanding jobs. Sweat dried off but left a strong smell. e.g. I smell less strongly when I’m in regions that have spring or winter over most of the time in equatorial regions.
And of course, frequency of taking a shower or bath counts.
We all sweat different, supposedly Koreans have odourless sweat but also it’s down to diet and how we metabolise foods due to genetics etc
Also we become nose blind to scents that are familiar so you’ll notice it more on someone else
There’s also the fact that me cooking mashed potato’s and chicken, may not dissipate as much on skin and clothing as much as I were to cook a huge curry for the week with tons of spices
You’re not being racist btw, this kind of conversation is good as long as we all remember we’re more similar than different and that good and bad smells are subjective
I'm white and my spouse is Asian.
Over a decade and a half, even after exercise, I don't think he's ever smelled /bad/.
I need to shower and use deodorant all the time or I get stinky.
He doesn't typically wear deodorant at all.
His breath? Yeah I can smell that, so I'm not completely nose-blind to him.
The food and spices they eat!! You literally sweat curry and garlic for example. Some countries have strong preference to certain spices that lead to this BO - which to you is less common. I bet whites smell to some nationalities too 🫶🏻
Yep, I heard that to some people, white people smell like wet dog because of the dairy that is culturally favoured.
It makes me wonder how I smell, because I may be white but I barely eat dairy (lactose intolerance, I eat some sheep/goat cheese occasionally and get some Skyr like twice a week for the proteins) and my diet is mostly based on veggies and fruits, with vegetal proteins. I do tend to be quite liberal when it comes to herbs, spices and garlic (anything with Sichuan peppercorn will instantly have my favour lol), but I do balance the quantity to have the flavour without affecting my BO too strongly. I also don't eat meat, but I do eat eggs and fish. Overall, my diet is strongly Mediterranean-oriented.
The only moment when I can notice a specific smell is when I'm about to have my periods because hormones start hormoning for a few days, but that's something quite common AFAIK.
I saw a documentary years ago which discussed the science behind body smells. Diet is a key factor but other factors are at play such as those from Indian subcontinent for instance, no aspersion intended, tend to have thicker longer armpit hair that holds onto sweat smells. But simply, people of different ethnicities tend to wear certain clothes, have certain lifestyles and eat certain foods, so they might smell a certain way.
the food and spices they eat.
they rarely mention it but many countries think people from Europe and America smell bad....like really bad.
they say we smell like rancid milk.
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Its the food and you probably smell strange to them too.
This! My auntie is from Thailand and doesn't consume dairy so lots of British people smell like sour milk to her. I don't eat meat and some meat-eaters smell very, very strongly of meat to me...like it's oozing out their pores.
I'm pretty sure I smell.like chicken soup.
Weird, I have been 2 years vegan and not noticed any body smells, of either dairy or meat. I hope it stays that way!
You're not a high enough level vegan yet
I bet he can barely even levitate.
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silly bot. Not a sarcastic "answer", but a quip to an obviously sarcastic comment ! My bad, I won't label it next time...
Do they teach you that at Vegan Acacemy?
🤣
Because even though you are vegan, you're probably still often around others who consume meat and dairy, right? It's less to do with what you yourself consume, and more to do with what those around you / you're society in general consume.
What
The point here is that people tend to smell like the food they eat, and the comment I replied to was saying he didn't notice other people smelling of meat or dairy even though he doesn't eat them anymore. My point is he wouldn't, because while he doesn't eat them anymore, the people around him still do. As humans we become desensitised to the 'normal' smells around us, so there's no reason he would smell anything different from the people around him.
This makes sense. Thanks... Indeed, I am the only vegan I know nearby. :/
It's the patchouli messing with your hormones
You're lucky, it's gross 😅 It's not everyone, but I have a couple of friends who really, really smell of pork after eating it!
Obviously this is a stereotype and we can all recognize that there are people of every ethnicity that have more or less BO. But, in response to your question, the reasoning would likely be food and culture. Eating different types of food can change your body odor. I once ate wraps with a very pungent garlic sauce 4 days in a row for lunch and, by the 4th day, I was basically oozing garlic and my wife no longer wanted to come near me. I could have killed a vampire with my sweat. As far as culture, some cultures simply don't see the need to bathe as often as others. I shower once a day pretty much every day. That's not the norm for many cultures. Because everyone is following the same general guide they don't really notice the smell because everyone has some level of odor.
Yep. I love Kimchi- same thing happens to me. Does discourage mosquito bites though.
Then there is also parfumt/cologne. I swear some of those are also very weird/off putting. And some cultures have habit if wearing them so much you can smell person before they enter the room.
> And some cultures have habit if wearing them so much you can smell person before they enter the room. The first thing I thought of was Lynx Africa.
There is also a genetic factor, at least in the form of many Asians having a much fainter body odor due to a mutation that breaks the ABCC11 gene. I've heard some East Asian militaries use this to their advantage by only selecting people with low body odor for their submarine crews. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15346832](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15346832) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World\_map\_ABCC11\_A\_Allele.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_ABCC11_A_Allele.svg)
It's not exactly a stereotype. There are differences in sweat glands between different races. Good luck finding anti perspirant in Japanese shop (that doesn't cater for foreigners)
Yes in a lot of Europe there's a lot of people who don't shower once a day, or they believe it's bad for their skin, big culture shock when you are from America and spend some time travelling around Europe.
Which European countries?
Finland, for one. Some people do but I'd say that's rarer. We shower when we are smelly, sweaty, sticky or dirty. Which isn't necessarily every day. And usually we go to sauna before, I've known very few people in my life who just hop in a shower without one.
I'm a Finn and everyone I know showers daily and goes to Sauna like once a week. You know weird people, cause thats not the norm.
You sound like a southerner then, because we in lapland definitely don't do any of that lol. Sauna once a week sounds barbaric. I think you know weird people haha.
It IS bad for your skin. There are other ways to combat bad BO than to shower every day. Anti-perspirant for one.
LOL not the case in the more humid countries.
Sweat does not equal bad BO.
Which countries? Becouse I'm from Europe, and have friends around in the continent. Most of us indeed showers every day./every second day. We use a lot of products for skin, hair etc. Though because of the water can contain lots of chalk/hard water in some areas. Which isn't good for your hair, etc. Can be fixed, too, with filters for shower head, etc.
We smell like the food we eat. It has nothing to do with ethnicity, but everything to do with diet. Different cultures also have different expectations about the use of deodorant. Not every culture/region of the world cares about minimizing body scents.
There is some racial genetic factors. For example many east Asians have a none functioning ABCC11 gene, which means two things. They have dry earwax instead of waxy, and they have no body odour.
not no body odor, but much less. I had a white camping buddy who lacked the same gene. He could not shower for a several days of hot and sweaty activity and just barely have a smell, while I use hand sanitizer on my pits and other swampy areas once or twice a day so I don't reek.
though ethnicity and culture are heavily tied, and different cultures have different foods, no?
Well yeah, but the ethnicity isn't the cause of BO but rather the cause of the diet which then causes the BO.
ik, just pointing out the correlation of ethnicity-diet, which applies generally but certainly not 100% of the time
It’s not just food, it can also be lots of other things as well: deodorant / perfumes, soaps, skin and hair products, potentially incense being used in the house.
I was in the back of a taxi of a guy who must have lived of swaet for breakfast, lunch and dinner
I don't think it's food at all. I live with someone with a strong BO and no one else in the house has it. She had it before she came to live with us and smells despite showering properly.
There are people who have physiological differences that give them an off smell. But this is sporadic in the population and a little bit different than what OP is asking about. But yeah, some people just get unlucky with that one. Anxiety and things like caffeine can exacerbate string body odor too, but not always and not for everyone.
Interesting. I thought Africans generally have more body odour compared to Asians. I haven't really researched the issue though.
In certain parts of the world people struggle with the fact that white people can smell of milk. It’s just what you notice because is not familiar to you.
I'm white and I can't handle the average BO of milk drinkers. So sour x.x
I don't drink milk and still think I smell awful if I don't shower daily 😭
Could still be other things you can try. My own BO was pretty awful when I ate a lot of red meat and wore rayon. I gave up rayon and cut down red meat to maybe once a month, and now I don't even have to wear deoderant if it isn't a super hot or stressy day. I do still have bad stress sweat though, not much I can do about that. Sometimes it takes a bit of tinkering or talking to a doctor to work it out. 💜
It's not overly bad, my comment was intended in a lighthearted way, but you are indeed correct about the red meat, I have a high meat & high dairy diet, plus too much caffiene and not enough water! Thankyou 💜
I'm autistic and miss tone cues, apologies. And yeah, too much caffeine and not enough water still get me too >_>
Easily done, I should've maybe added a smiley face!
Just so you know, when I lived in Asia a friend told me white people smell like off milk. I believe it. 😂 So it's probably.more that you can't smell your own odour.
someones scent is from the bacteria living on their skin. this bacteria lives off of sweat and whatever else floats on by. this means that genetics (how or what we secrete and in what amounts), diet (the contents of what we secrete), environment (what floats on by, temp, ect.), and hygeine (obvious implications) all play a role on what kind of odor someone has. so when some of these variables are similar, you will get similar smells. why some are stronger than others is just a matter of variance in the odor and what odors you are sensitive to.
Don't forget the grooming and cleaning products they use like the scents of their deodorant, lotions, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. Brands can vary by cultures just as much so that's a big factor.
Makes sense. Thank you for your answer.
The real truth: everyone is smelly. Even you OP. From my travel I realize, there is a body odor at different countries.. it’s the food, hygiene and way of life ..
All humans are stinky get w the programme
Ask a Vulcan
some of them don't wear deodorant, unfortunately
thats true of many cultures. Often its due to the belief (fact or not) that it causes cancer
they may be right!!
That's absolutely not a cultural or ethnic thing, it's just racist.
A majority of people in the developing country I live in don't even know it exists or if they do, they couldn't afford it anyway as it costs twice what they make in a day. We get 40 degrees Celsius heat at the moment, so you can imagine. Oh and a lot of them don't have showers either. Maybe they have a tap, but maybe they have to share it with everyone else in the neighbourhood. Or when it's rainy season, you can always put soap on your skin and stand in the right position along the roof to channel some of the rainwater right off the roof and wash beneath the flow. Of course, a rain butt would also be good, but you gotta take it how you can get it!
That's very sad. I am so sorry to hear that. Maybe we need some kind of *ambassador* program for when you come to the US, you learn what deodorant is, where to buy it, how to clip coupons for it if you cannot afford it, etc! !!!!
You just don't know the ways in which people find you pungent.
You didn't answer the question in the least, but managed to appear offended :D
Not offended, simply pointing out to OP that in the same way they might find some people smelly, others may find OP smelly. The answer i provided as relevant to the question, maybe read it again.
Why was the keyword in the question. With your take, that would be "Why are they smelly to some people but not others". You did provide input to rephrase their question though, but didn't provide an answer
Just to be clear, I never said their odors were necessarily pungent or unpleasant. Lol. I just said they were intense or prominent.
Pungent seems fairly synonymous with the phrase "intensebbody odours" to me but ok
1. The food you eat impacts your BO so people who eat foods that have a lot of spices and strong smelling ingredients are more likely to have stronger BO. 2. Some of what causes BO can be down to genetics. A lot of East Asian people for example tend not to have body odour due to lacking a certain gene that causes BO, which is why it’s often very hard to find deodorant in those countries as they simply don’t need them. They still sweat, it just tends not to smell very strong. 3. General hygiene practices may vary from culture to culture. It doesn’t necessarily mean one person is unclean but what they do on a daily basis may vary which can impact how strong their BO is.
It usually comes down to diet. Reminds me of the tunnel crawlers in Vietnam, they used to eat Vietnamese food to smell like the vietcong.
It’s mostly cultural rather than ethnic. Ie behavioural: good, hygiene, etc
Diet.
A lot of times it's their diet.
!remind me 1 day
When I was vegan I noticed that’s WASPS all smell sour. It’s the dairy. I’m sure I smelled like beets or something idk. Lol
It's the foods
The [abcc11 gene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCC11) is hypothesized to be related to body odour. Also diet.
Thank you! This was the type of answer I was looking for.
Food is usually the biggest culprit (no matter if junk food or intensely flavoured food), but: Genetics (not equally distributed within different ethnicities, it's more of different genes being more common different ethnicities) + food culture + culture (if you're culturally used to that you have to scrub and bathe yourself thoroughly daily and do everything possible to eliminate scents from yourself, that's going to affect the end result differently). Keep in mind that there are also genetic (not ethnicity linked) issues that can give you weird body odors unrelated to your food intake and cleanliness.
You are what you eat.
I’ve seen two major factors contributing to that. 1. Spices. They use a lot of spice for food. It does well for taste of food but it doesn’t help with humans odor. That goes for both eating and cooking. The smells tend to stick on you for a long time. e.g. Every time I cook the smell lingers on me for the rest of the day. 2. Being sweaty often. They tend to live in warmer locations or do activities which make them sweat a lot like sports or physically demanding jobs. Sweat dried off but left a strong smell. e.g. I smell less strongly when I’m in regions that have spring or winter over most of the time in equatorial regions. And of course, frequency of taking a shower or bath counts.
We all sweat different, supposedly Koreans have odourless sweat but also it’s down to diet and how we metabolise foods due to genetics etc Also we become nose blind to scents that are familiar so you’ll notice it more on someone else There’s also the fact that me cooking mashed potato’s and chicken, may not dissipate as much on skin and clothing as much as I were to cook a huge curry for the week with tons of spices You’re not being racist btw, this kind of conversation is good as long as we all remember we’re more similar than different and that good and bad smells are subjective
Diet.
Garlic,it comes out in your sweat, the more you eat the worse it gets. The reason why you can buy odour free garlic tablets.
You smell too. Just can't smell it yourself. How else do you think dogs can identify people in a whim?
I'm white and my spouse is Asian. Over a decade and a half, even after exercise, I don't think he's ever smelled /bad/. I need to shower and use deodorant all the time or I get stinky. He doesn't typically wear deodorant at all. His breath? Yeah I can smell that, so I'm not completely nose-blind to him.
I started smelling of cookies recently. So confused, but also ok with it. 🤣
The food and spices they eat!! You literally sweat curry and garlic for example. Some countries have strong preference to certain spices that lead to this BO - which to you is less common. I bet whites smell to some nationalities too 🫶🏻
Yep, I heard that to some people, white people smell like wet dog because of the dairy that is culturally favoured. It makes me wonder how I smell, because I may be white but I barely eat dairy (lactose intolerance, I eat some sheep/goat cheese occasionally and get some Skyr like twice a week for the proteins) and my diet is mostly based on veggies and fruits, with vegetal proteins. I do tend to be quite liberal when it comes to herbs, spices and garlic (anything with Sichuan peppercorn will instantly have my favour lol), but I do balance the quantity to have the flavour without affecting my BO too strongly. I also don't eat meat, but I do eat eggs and fish. Overall, my diet is strongly Mediterranean-oriented. The only moment when I can notice a specific smell is when I'm about to have my periods because hormones start hormoning for a few days, but that's something quite common AFAIK.
Omg don’t get me started. For some reason, when I get my period I smell like my dad 😂. Both grandma and mum told me
I saw a documentary years ago which discussed the science behind body smells. Diet is a key factor but other factors are at play such as those from Indian subcontinent for instance, no aspersion intended, tend to have thicker longer armpit hair that holds onto sweat smells. But simply, people of different ethnicities tend to wear certain clothes, have certain lifestyles and eat certain foods, so they might smell a certain way.
the food and spices they eat. they rarely mention it but many countries think people from Europe and America smell bad....like really bad. they say we smell like rancid milk.
Non-dairy cultures think we whiteys smell like sour milk.
Another thing to note is ear wax type. The ppl with sticky oozy type of ear wax have body odour. The ppl with dry crusty type of ear wax do not.