FOOD AND BODY ODOR
You must have come across all those hyperbole deodorant ads where heads turn on smell, well they may not be realistic but your body odor, if bad may turn heads away from you, in real.

It’s embarrassing to have a bad body odor or bad breath, but why does one smell so, off course except those who take pride in not bathing for days!!

Your diet is also responsible for the way you smell! Yes, you read it right, the food you consume has effect on how you smell! There is a popular saying for that, ‘you are what you eat’. It is very true as everything we eat impacts the way we look and smell like. So, if you want to smell good naturally and become more attractive, then you must keep the toxins at bay, This Nutrishilp blog will really help you more than the deodorant shots to manage the way you smell.

Understand the Body Odor first –

Our bodies are covered in glands that produce sweat when we get hot, helping to cool us down. Sweat doesn’t normally smell, being mostly water and salt, but the apocrine sweat glands, which are found in places like the armpits, release sweat that’s full of proteins. The bacteria that live on our skin love to eat these proteins, and as they do so, they release smelly acids.

Sweating is actually very important because it prevents you from overheating by working as your natural air conditioner.

The females during puberty may perspire (sweat) more than before due to hormones and sweat glands become more active, similar is the case with people facing obesity or with medical conditions as diabetes.

Most of the people perceive sweating as the issue but it is not so unless it is sweating in normal amount, the real culprit is smell of your sweat, the odor.

Body odor is defined by three factors, genetics, overall health and personal hygiene. However, it turns out that your diet, or at least some foods, may also affect body odor. What you eat can directly affect how you smell, in more ways than just your breath. It also depends on how your body metabolizes the foods you have consumed. Moreover, when your body temperature rises as a result of stress, anxiety or just excessive heat, it activates your sweat glands, producing odorless sweat. Many factors affect this process, including your diet.

If you’re struggling to control body odor, learning more about how its affected by food could be the key to combat the problem, Include the following in your diet to naturally change the way you smell –

(The purview of ‘way you smell’ covers your body odor and breath both)

Water

Water is not only good for us because it keeps us healthy, but it also keeps us smelling better,

As said sweat is mostly water, so if you’re low on fluids, it can be more concentrated and smell stronger. If your sweat smells particularly strong, check your water consumption.

Drinking water helps to flush out our bodies eliminating some of the things that cause us to smell. Eating foods that have a high-water content like fruits and vegetables help to reduce our body odor.

Apple

An apple a day may help keep the doctor away but also with its natural detergent properties by biting into an apple, you’re pushing plaque away from your teeth as well as any food matter that could cause bacteria in the recesses of your mouth.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar kills bacteria and dries excess sweat, the two main causes of foot odor,
It’s a really good, effective and cheap cure as it has plenty of acetic acid and phenolic.

Greens

Leafy green vegetables like spinach, watercress, kale and chard contain high levels of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is associated with a number of different health benefits, including the ability to neutralize odor-causing compounds in the body. If you’re not eating enough greens, this could make a huge difference.

Fiber-rich Foods

Foods that are high in fiber include peas, lentils, and beans. Whatever your source, ensuring you’re eating enough is important for digestion, so any smelly compounds in your food are processed more quickly and less can exit through sweat.

Citrus fruits

Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, and pineapples are absorbed by the body and eliminate smells that are on our skin, The acids in citrus fruits help flush water through your body. And because citrus also contains fiber, they move through your system slowly and flush out toxins that contribute to body odors.

Fenugreek

Fenugreek is great for flushing out the toxins from the body. Both leaves and seeds have the ability to reduce body odor by removing the harmful toxins from our body that causes the foul smell.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is known for its ability to remove bad breath, but it can also act as a natural scent to your body if you consume it daily.

Sage

Sage is a natural deodorant which helps in removing the awful smell from the body. Being antiperspirant in nature, sage reduces sweating which is one of the main reasons for body odor.

Rosemary

When it comes to nixing body odors, Rosemary can be really helpful. It inhibits the growth of smell-causing bacteria in the body as it contains menthol and chlorophyll, which are popular for their deodorizing properties.

Other fresh herbs

Fresh Herbs like parsley, basil, and mint can help mask bad breath with the strong oils that they contain, incorporating fresh herbs into your dinner or have a fruit salad with basil or mint for dessert to help combat the smells you may get from dinner. These herbs can act as a mouthwash to temporarily mask odors.

Ginger

While ginger great for settling the stomach, it also has the powerful effect of neutralizing bad breath. Pressed ginger combined with lemon juice and warm water creates a great rinse to keep the unpleasant odors at bay.

Fennel seed

A very common bad breath remedy is to chew on some fennel seeds. The act of doing so not only increases saliva that washes away bacteria from your mouth they also help neutralize offensive odors and aid digestion. But that’s not all: fennel oils have antibacterial properties as well, fighting germs that cause bad breath.

Green Tea

It contains polyphenols. These are antioxidants that fight the growth of bacteria and also help reduce sulfur compounds that can improve breath. Green tea, like most teas, can stain teeth, however luckily, green tea extracts can be taken as a supplement, which has been proven to fight oral bacteria. The tannic acids found in both green and black teas will help keep your feet dry, thus preventing the root of your foot odor problem.

Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is rich in chlorophyll, the substance which helps in reducing the bad body smell. Just put two teaspoons of wheatgrass juice in a glass of water and drink it.

Along with, it is also important to take care of your personal hygiene for avoiding unpleasant odor.

Nutrishilp suggests to increase the use of the said food and drinks in your diet to have a pleasant body odor but if you are under medication for an ailment it is advised to consult your physician before dietary changes or look for an advice from Nutrishilp diet experts.

“Our body becomes reliant on antiperspirant. If you stop using it, you can experience major changes in the bacteria that grows under your arms, causing you to smell. There is a reason it is classified as an over-the-counter drug, thus depend on nature more as your body is a natural entity and our choices and lifestyle shall be directed towards syncing it more with the nature .Heal it more from inside and you may take the assistance of antiperspirants to change you smell but do not solely depend on them to counter body odor issue.”

– Shilpi Goel, Dietitian and Nutritionist.

– Keep visiting this space for more of such nutritional blogs.