Haven’t had any coffee today? That stinks for you. Had coffee today? That stink you smell, well, it might be coming from you. Turns out, coffee may be causing your body odor.
As reported by the Huffington Post, the smells associated with body odor are not those of sweat, though sweat is what causes them. When we sweat, that mix of water, salt, and fat comes out of our pores and collects on our skin, where it comes in contact with bacteria. It is this bacterial intermingling that leads to a particularly human pungence.
Coffee, along with other caffeinated beverages, leads to more activity of the apocrine sweat glands. More sweat means more water, salt, and fat to mix with skin-level bacteria, which means more odor.
But coffee isn’t the only offering from earth’s bounty that can lead to more body odor. Red meat, dairy, alcohol, and garlic are all said to add to the stinkiness. Those first three are fine, I could forego them all without much disruption to my overall happiness, but garlic, not so much. It ranks right up there with coffee on the list of “things that make life worth living.”
Still, the article offers a few suggestions from the UK’s National Health Services to deal with body odor, including using deodorants/antiperspirants, changing and washing clothes regularly, washing your armpits, groin, and feet twice daily with soap, and wearing natural fabrics and antibacterial socks.
Or, you could take the advice of a person who has not just survived but thrived through countless Texas summers: accept it. Live in the fullness of being human. Drink coffee, sweat, glisten. Be okay smelling like a person having a good time, because that’s what you are. The people fighting their very nature are the weird ones.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
