Here's a question about urine we never thought about but now has us rather curious: Does everybody make that icky smell after eating asparagus and some people simply can't smell it -- like those guys on the bus who seem incapable of sensing their own ripe body aromas -- or is it some people just don't turn asparagus into chemical weaponry? Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia cared enough to find out. The answer (drum roll, please): Both. About 8 percent of 38 test subjects who ate roasted asparagus (yum!) did not have smelly pee. About 6 percent could not smell the odor. One lucky person could not do either. Why would anybody care? Well, it all has to do with individual genetic variation and metabolism, which is kind of interesting. But there might be a practical implication, too. The no-smell folks might not be able to detect a compound related to the one in smelly asparagus pee, mercaptan, which is added to natural gas to make it noticeable. We don't really want you commenting on this post, because we feel that enough has been said about asparagus and pee for the day. But if you insist, go on.
Does your pee smell after eating asparagus even if you can't smell it?
