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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on August 4, 2006
Chemical Senses 2006 31(8):747-752; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjl017
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Effect of Meat Consumption on Body Odor Attractiveness

Jan Havlicek1 and Pavlina Lenochova2

1 Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic 2 Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Correspondence to be sent to: Jan Havlicek, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Husnikova 2075, 158 00 Prague 13, Czech Republic. e-mail: jan.havlicek{at}fhs.cuni.cz

Axillary body odor is individually specific and potentially a rich source of information about its producer. Odor individuality partly results from genetic individuality, but the influence of ecological factors such as eating habits are another main source of odor variability. However, we know very little about how particular dietary components shape our body odor. Here we tested the effect of red meat consumption on body odor attractiveness. We used a balanced within-subject experimental design. Seventeen male odor donors were on "meat" or "nonmeat" diet for 2 weeks wearing axillary pads to collect body odor during the final 24 h of the diet. Fresh odor samples were assessed for their pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity, and intensity by 30 women not using hormonal contraceptives. We repeated the same procedure a month later with the same odor donors, each on the opposite diet than before. Results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the odor of donors when on the nonmeat diet was judged as significantly more attractive, more pleasant, and less intense. This suggests that red meat consumption has a negative impact on perceived body odor hedonicity.

Key words: diet, human, meat, olfaction, scent, smell


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