Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia found that women prefer the body odor of men who eat a fruit- and vegetable-packed diet to those who eat a lot of refined carbohydrates.
Schools of research have shown that the link between scent and attraction came about as a part of evolution, and that the way an individual’s sweat smells tells a potential partner how healthy they are.
And this new research reaffirms that notion that scent and health are linked and play a significant role in how desirable someone is considered.
‘We’ve known for a while that odor is an important component of attractiveness, especially for women,’ lead author Dr Ian Stephen said.
The research team assessed the amount of vegetables; a group of healthy young men were eating by looking at the color of their skin.
Specifically, they used a spectrophotometer, which measures the intensity of light emitted by a certain substance, to measure the skin’s color.
When people eat colorful vegetables, their skin takes on the hue of carotenoids, the plant pigments that make food red, yellow and orange.
The results show how much carotenoids are in a person’s skin, reflecting how many fruits and vegetables they are eating.
The male participants were also asked to complete food frequency questionnaires to assess overall eating patterns.
They were all then given clean shirts and asked to do a series of exercises.
Afterwards, female participants were given this shirts to sniff and subsequently rate the scent of based on a variety of factors.
They were give a list of 21 descriptors and asked to describe the shirts and say how attractive, strong or healthy they smelled.
When they compiled the answers, researchers noted that there were certain descriptors that were frequently grouped together. Based on that, they made a list of factors that suggest how good the shirts smelled.
Results showed overwhelmingly that men who ate more fruits and vegetables were rated as smelling more attractive and healthy than men who ate a lot of carbohydrates.
They also found that men who ate a lot of meats were described as having a more intense smell, but that smell was not considered to be bad. And men who ate a carbohydrate-heavy diet produced the least attractive odors.
They also found that diet only accounted for 20 percent of the difference between the participant’s body odor.
Prior studies have shown that the yellow-ish hue caused by carotenoids – which are present in the skin of people who eat a lot of vegetables – is said to be an attractive hue.
Noting that, researchers came to the conclusion that a diet full of fruits and vegetables makes men look and smell more attractive.
Though results were consistent, the research team noted that the main weakness was the small size of the participant pool.
However, prior studies have shown that the way an individual’s sweat smells has little to do with what they eat, and instead is influenced by the bacteria present on their skin.
Schools of research have shown that scent plays a strong role in attraction. One study, conducted at Chapman University and UCLA showed that women were considered to be more attractive when in the most fertile phase of their menstrual cycle.
Source: Daily Mail
