Why does my tinkle smell funny after I eat asparagus?
11-18-2002, 02:50 PM
#221
Nice for the tables to be turned on this occasion, eh? 
I guess I learned the "woman" rules many moons ago. Maybe the thing is that women never have much of an opportunity to learn them.
I guess I learned the "woman" rules many moons ago. Maybe the thing is that women never have much of an opportunity to learn them.
11-18-2002, 02:59 PM
#222
Registered User
Could be right there Chalrie 
I have a (female) friend who was sitting in a bar in Hong Kong, smoking and drinking wine as if it was going out of fashion () and one of the bar ladies said to her that she shouldn't be smoking and drinking if she was expecting a baby ..... 
She just turned to her and said (in her VERY posh English accent)"I'm not pregnant darling, I am just fat ...." .... great comeback line I thought !!!
I have a (female) friend who was sitting in a bar in Hong Kong, smoking and drinking wine as if it was going out of fashion (
) and one of the bar ladies said to her that she shouldn't be smoking and drinking if she was expecting a baby ..... She just turned to her and said (in her VERY posh English accent)"I'm not pregnant darling, I am just fat ...." .... great comeback line I thought !!!
s to drink was the price to pay for a good retort! 
11-19-2002, 05:36 AM
#229
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 10,342
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I had a female technician working for me earlier this year who appeared to be somewhat...uh...I guess 'masculine' is the word I'm looking for here. Anyway, being the good supervisor I was, I took them all to lunch at the end of the contract. We're sitting at Red Lobster, 3 guys and her, and the waitress comes up and says, "what can I get you fellas" ...
...utter silence followed.
She looked up from the menu and said, 'I'm a woman, can't you tell the difference?'
The poor waitress just stumbled and apologized. I felt pretty bad for her, believe me, ANYONE could have made that mistake!!!
By the way,
rule #6
Never believe a woman when she says that she doesn't want to do anything special for her Birthday, Christmas, Anniversary, New Year's, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Labor day, Halloween, Valentines day, Kwanza, Boxing day, Yom Kippur (even if she's not Jewish), the spring-summer-fall-or winter solstice, Mother's birthday, sister's birthday or lunar-solar eclipse.
...utter silence followed.
She looked up from the menu and said, 'I'm a woman, can't you tell the difference?'
The poor waitress just stumbled and apologized. I felt pretty bad for her, believe me, ANYONE could have made that mistake!!!
By the way,
rule #6
Never believe a woman when she says that she doesn't want to do anything special for her Birthday, Christmas, Anniversary, New Year's, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Labor day, Halloween, Valentines day, Kwanza, Boxing day, Yom Kippur (even if she's not Jewish), the spring-summer-fall-or winter solstice, Mother's birthday, sister's birthday or lunar-solar eclipse.
11-19-2002, 06:02 AM
#230
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Austin
Posts: 1,865
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
by Hannah Holmes
"This is of no practical importance," the urologist tells me. "It wasn't part of my training. It's something we contemplated over pizza and beer." When I admit that I have actually timed the arrival of the distinctive odor in my pee after eating asparagus (about 15 minutes), the good doctor suggests, facetiously, that my groundbreaking research might lead to a tenure-track position at a fine university.
It is a sadly neglected field. But I'm not the first to ask.
In 1891 a scientist named "Nencki" had so very little to do that he convinced four guys to eat seven kilograms of asparagus (that's about three and a half pounds each). He collected the pertinent pee, worked some medieval magic on it, and concluded that the smell was due to a metabolite called methanethiol.
So there you go. Nencki claimed that as your body metabolizes asparagus, it produces this smelly chemical, which your discriminating kidneys see fit to dump into the bladder.
This probably doesn't qualify as red-hot science, but it's warm enough to spark differing opinions.
In 1975 a chemist from California claimed in Science that gas chromatography had fingered a different culprit: S-Methyl Thioesters, to be precise. No methanethiol.
Then there's the 1980 reference in the British Medical Journal that simply refers to "metabolites." Another asparagus scholar favors "six sulfur-containing compounds."
I'm voting for methanethiol, partly because the guy who did the gas chromatography left no forwarding address, and partly because the methanethiol entry in my aging Merck Index of chemicals is so interesting.
Methanethiol is composed mostly of sulfur with a splash of hydrogen, plus some carbon, a brew famous for its effect in rotten eggs, cabbages and paper mills. Convincing, no? Merck also notes the asparagus connection and, most intriguing, warns that methanethiol may be a narcotic in high concentrations.
Now if you're scowling at your screen and muttering, "My pee doesn't smell like asparagus," first ask yourself if you eat asparagus.
Even if you do but lack the smell, you're still OK. In fact the fabulously funny book, The ReSearch Guide to Body Fluids (by Paul Spinrad, Juno Books, N.Y., 1994), says just 22 percent of survey respondents experience asparagus pee.
Early investigators thought genetics had divided the world into stinkers and nonstinkers. That was until 1980, when three researchers had the presence of mind to wave pee from the nonstinkers under the noses of the stinkers.
Lo and behold, the problem proved to be one not of producing the stinky pee but of being able to sniff it out.
If you've been deprived of this gift, don't give up hope. To increase the concentration of methanethiol molecules available to your snoot, you could either intentionally dehydrate yourself before you dine (this is unhealthful); or pee into a cup and sniff that. Or eat three and a half pounds of asparagus for lunch.
And if you experience a narcotic effect, you could be looking at a tenure-track position at a fine university.
Vocabulary
Asparagus fleet, n. Roman emperors were so fond of asparagus, which probably originated near the Mediterranean, that they kept special boats for the purpose of fetching it.
Check out more of "The Skinny On..." stories:
Traffic Jam "Ghosts"
Hannah Holmes sniffs out answers to life's oddities in Portland, Maine. She's a regular contributor to Discovery Channel Online and also writes for Escape, Outside, Sierra, Backpacker, Eco Traveler and Women's Sports and Fitness. Write her at skinny@online.discovery.com.
"This is of no practical importance," the urologist tells me. "It wasn't part of my training. It's something we contemplated over pizza and beer." When I admit that I have actually timed the arrival of the distinctive odor in my pee after eating asparagus (about 15 minutes), the good doctor suggests, facetiously, that my groundbreaking research might lead to a tenure-track position at a fine university.
It is a sadly neglected field. But I'm not the first to ask.
In 1891 a scientist named "Nencki" had so very little to do that he convinced four guys to eat seven kilograms of asparagus (that's about three and a half pounds each). He collected the pertinent pee, worked some medieval magic on it, and concluded that the smell was due to a metabolite called methanethiol.
So there you go. Nencki claimed that as your body metabolizes asparagus, it produces this smelly chemical, which your discriminating kidneys see fit to dump into the bladder.
This probably doesn't qualify as red-hot science, but it's warm enough to spark differing opinions.
In 1975 a chemist from California claimed in Science that gas chromatography had fingered a different culprit: S-Methyl Thioesters, to be precise. No methanethiol.
Then there's the 1980 reference in the British Medical Journal that simply refers to "metabolites." Another asparagus scholar favors "six sulfur-containing compounds."
I'm voting for methanethiol, partly because the guy who did the gas chromatography left no forwarding address, and partly because the methanethiol entry in my aging Merck Index of chemicals is so interesting.
Methanethiol is composed mostly of sulfur with a splash of hydrogen, plus some carbon, a brew famous for its effect in rotten eggs, cabbages and paper mills. Convincing, no? Merck also notes the asparagus connection and, most intriguing, warns that methanethiol may be a narcotic in high concentrations.
Now if you're scowling at your screen and muttering, "My pee doesn't smell like asparagus," first ask yourself if you eat asparagus.
Even if you do but lack the smell, you're still OK. In fact the fabulously funny book, The ReSearch Guide to Body Fluids (by Paul Spinrad, Juno Books, N.Y., 1994), says just 22 percent of survey respondents experience asparagus pee.
Early investigators thought genetics had divided the world into stinkers and nonstinkers. That was until 1980, when three researchers had the presence of mind to wave pee from the nonstinkers under the noses of the stinkers.
Lo and behold, the problem proved to be one not of producing the stinky pee but of being able to sniff it out.
If you've been deprived of this gift, don't give up hope. To increase the concentration of methanethiol molecules available to your snoot, you could either intentionally dehydrate yourself before you dine (this is unhealthful); or pee into a cup and sniff that. Or eat three and a half pounds of asparagus for lunch.
And if you experience a narcotic effect, you could be looking at a tenure-track position at a fine university.
Vocabulary
Asparagus fleet, n. Roman emperors were so fond of asparagus, which probably originated near the Mediterranean, that they kept special boats for the purpose of fetching it.
Check out more of "The Skinny On..." stories:
Traffic Jam "Ghosts"
Hannah Holmes sniffs out answers to life's oddities in Portland, Maine. She's a regular contributor to Discovery Channel Online and also writes for Escape, Outside, Sierra, Backpacker, Eco Traveler and Women's Sports and Fitness. Write her at skinny@online.discovery.com.