Asparagus is delicious and, thanks to valuable ingredients, also healthy. But as soon as you eat it, the delicious dish turns into a pungent smell in the toilet. Why is that?
The problem: Urine smells bad after eating asparagus
If only it weren’t for that unpleasant acrid smell when you go to the toilet, shortly after eating asparagus. However, fewer people are affected by this than is commonly thought.
The phenomenon of asparagus urine only occurs with every second person. The reasons can be very different. “Methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulphide compete in asparagus urine for the most unpleasant note,” says an article in the magazine Chemie in our time.
The foul-smelling substance trio is quite familiar to our nose: It also gives human biogases such as flatulence, mouth and athlete’s foot odor unpleasant notes.
Why does urine smell after eating asparagus?
Asparagus, whether white or green, contains asparagusic acid, which is initially odorless. However, if this is broken down, a sulphur-containing compound is formed which is excreted in the urine – with a corresponding odour.
However, this breakdown product only occurs if you have a certain enzyme – and not everyone does that. The genes decide who has this enzyme and who doesn’t. Only about 40 percent of people have such a gene that is able to produce the enzyme.
Still others can’t even smell the smell. The Apotheken Umschau writes that those affected then probably have a mutation in an odor receptor gene. But don’t worry, it’s neither bad nor dangerous.
Asparagus urine resembles skunk secretion
“The smell is harmless and not a sign of illness or poisoning,” reports Stefan Lorkowski, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Jena, to the Apotheken-Umschau. Stuffing when going to the toilet is still unpleasant. No wonder, since the substance is similar to the chemical compounds in the dreaded skunk secretion.
Only 15 minutes after enjoying an asparagus meal, it starts to smell. Nothing can be done about it. However, drinking plenty of water helps flush the breakdown products out of the body quickly.
Incidentally, the problem that the pee gives off a strange smell after eating asparagus is not new: reports of smelly asparagus urine have been around since the middle of the 17th century – a time when sulfur and sulfates were used as fertilizers for the first time.
