SUMMER, DIET AND … BODY ODOR!

This article touches on a subject that's quite sensitive to many people: body odor. Here, we explore the link between the foods we choose to consume and the odor produced by our body – yes, there is a direct correlation. With all the hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on personal care products and deodorants, I'm amazed there's almost no discussion about reducing body odor by changing our diet. In fact, when I've mentioned this subject to some people, they looked at me in bewilderment. They ask questions like "What do you mean; our foods control our body odor? Body odor is genetic!" Thus, what we need is a crash course in the underlying causes of body odor. We'll call it “The Fundamentals of Offensive Personal Odors”, or just “Body Odor 101”, for short. 

Lesson number one in “Body Odor 101” is that what comes out of our body reflects what we put in. Body odor is something that's strongly affected by what's being emitted by our sweat glands. And remember, armpits are designed to sweat. I know that may sound insanely simple, because everybody knows that armpits sweat, but I'm saying that armpits are supposed to perspire. (Remember the saying: Horses sweat, men perspire, women glow!!!) Yet people go to great lengths to prevent their armpits from sweating using deodorant products. 

But there's more to it than just cooling your body temperature through perspiration - another function of the sweat glands in our armpits is to excrete toxins from our body. This is why sweating is an important part of maintaining optimum physical health. We have to give our body a chance to get rid of various toxins through a variety of metabolic processes. Those include urination, passing fecal matter, exhaling carbon dioxide and other toxins through the lungs, and, of course, eliminating toxins through the skin. The skin, remember, is the body's largest organ. 

Our armpits, then, actually have an important health function; getting rid of toxins. That's why we need to keep them open and unclogged by deodorant products. Sweating is good for you. 

But … what about the odor? Where does that really come from? The real cause of armpit odor is the intentional excretion of horrible toxins that our body is trying to get rid of. And by using deodorant products, we block the exit door and force these toxins to stay in our system! 

The way to eliminate body odor therefore is not to mask it with deodorant products, but rather to clean up our body from the inside out. In other words, if our armpits have a horrible raunchy smell that's an indication that our diet needs some adjusting.

Many deodorants and antiperspirants are made with aluminum, in order to halt the perspiration of our sweat glands, and this aluminum is suspected of accumulating in the nervous system and ultimately contributing to nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. When we give up red meat, junk foods, fast foods and other dietary “atrocities”, we will no longer need deodorants!

Foods that make us stink!

Let's take a closer look at the causes of body odor. Which foods really cause body odor in the first place? 

Red meat is the number one cause of body odor. It causes stagnation in the body. It actually putrefies in the digestive tract and releases all sorts of toxins into the bloodstream, through the large intestine. I've noticed that people who consume a large quantity of red meat on a regular basis tend to have much stronger body odor than those who avoid it.  Overall, if you find a healthful vegetarian and put them side by side with a heavy meat eater in a sniff test, I'm confident your nose will lead you to the conclusion that the meat eater is the most offensive of the two. It's weird science, yes, but we are talking about a strange subject to begin with!

As far as other foods go, that cause body odor, we have to talk about manufactured foods, those lacking fiber, made with refined white flour, added sugars, hydrogenated oils and other processed ingredients. These are the big culprits. When we eliminate these from our diet and shift to a more healthful diet, made of whole grains, massive quantities of leafy vegetables, fresh fruits, soy products, super greens, lots of sprouts, raw nuts and seeds, healthy oils and other similar healthful ingredients, our body odor will all but disappear in a matter of weeks.

That's because a plant-based diet is an internal deodorizer. It's true: the chlorophyll and other phytonutrients will cleanse us from the inside out. Some of the best foods for that include: parsley, cilantro, celery and all mint species. The aromatic herbs are also excellent; sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and so on.

As a sidebar to the body odor discussion, all the things that come out of our body are strong indicators of our current level of health, as well as what adjustments we need to make in order to be healthier. 

It's very easy to smell our own armpits and get a sense of what's going on. Try going 24 hours with no deodorant. If you can't stand the smell from the outside, just imagine what your body smells like on the inside! Maybe it's time for some changes in your diet, don’t you think?