Asparagus Syndrome

[steepholm]

I dreamed last night that a relative of mine was taken forcibly to hospital on account of his strange-smelling urine. I was running after the doctor, shouting "You don't understand! It's just that we ate asparagus for supper!"

The doctor turned and in my dream he looked at me with a dreadful blankness. And it came into my mind that he didn't know about the asparagus-and-urine thing.

My dream arose from eating it myself last night, of course, and also reading the asparagus Wiki page a few months ago, where I learned that the ability to detect the change in odour was not universal. Apparently it's a genetic thing, limited to about 22% of the population.

Which leads me, naturally, to ask:

[Poll #1830587]

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'm told that there is a difference, but (a) I don't notice it, and (b) I'm not very clear why some people think this is a reason to avoid asparagus (at least one person has told me that he does so).

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't find it especially pleasant, but asparagus is well worth it.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously I'm not best placed to judge, as I've never noticed anything, but unless one spends a lot of time sniffing urine why does it matter?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Quite. Sir Thomas Browne may have been preoccupied with "the fruitless importunity of uroscopy", but there's no reason we should feel obliged to join him.

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

Exactly: I dislike the side effect but would never turn down aspargus for that reason. I love asparagus and the side effect is quite short-lived.

[joyeuce]

I notice a very clear difference, but my husband claims he doesn't; I might now believe him if only 22% of the population can tell!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Going by the people who've answered this poll, which admittedly might be biassed towards those who can tell (few people like to advertise their own deficits, however trivial) most people can tell the difference, but not all, by any means.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

We seem to be conflating two variables: whether one can smell the difference, and whose urine it is. The number of people, even spouses, willing to sniff each others' urine to test these separately must be too small to form a meaningful data sample.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Good point. Luckily, research has been done on this matter! The Wiki page is a little vague, but the consensus appears to be that all asparagus eaters, or almost all, produce the distinctive smell, but that a proportion is unable to detect the fact.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Fwiw and given that I don't eat meat, I believe that tinned products like corned beef, which contain nitrates as a preservative can cause a very distinctive odour when finally excreted.