When I remind food sensitive patients to reduce all toiletries containing perfumes as part of their diet investigation many mothers say “That is a problem as we need deodorants for our strong body odour!” So I found perfume-free deodorants. As well, some mothers comment on their children’s smelly poos or the strong urine odour.
What is happening?
It seems that food sensitive people are poor metabolisers of strong smelling compounds in their diet. This means that their body excretes them through the skin, in bad breath, and smelly poo or urine. The other problem that those with IBS comment on is foul smelling wind. Everybody passes lots of wind but where it smells bad it can be very distressing. What was amazing for me was the finding that once on their low chemical diet [minimising artificial flavours, high salicylates in any herbs, spices, tomato and acidic fruit, chocolate, sauces, and of course MSG], they reported much lower body odours of any kind. People with IBS are very pleased when they have this particular improvement with diet investigation.
The other interesting idea is that food sensitive people are supersmellers so they notice all smells more. That means they are often more conscious of body smells than the general population is, so they may worry more about their body odour than they need to. Relatives who are also supersmellers may tease them about it and make them more self conscious than they need to be. Others near them may not even notice their body odour at all!
Where people have body odour of any kind that bothers them, or it occurs in their children they can use this as an additional reason for diet investigation using a diet low in additives and natural chemicals. It is wise to have the support of an accredited practising dietitian. You can see Are You Food Sensitive? for detail to help you can understand that you can solve this problem. See http://btdev.in/dev/fip/food-sensitivity-advice/
Leave a Reply