I’d like to throw a disclaimer in the beginning of this in the (very likely) event that a gaggle of painfully undesirable men (6,000 pounds give or take a few, doesn’t have a job, eats hot pockets for every meal, doesn’t shower) feel the need to head out to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of garlic. Sorry guys, but chowing down on garlic won’t solve your problems with women – not being disgusting slobs probably will, but we all know that takes more effort than eating chicken parm every meal for the next week so when that doesn’t work when it comes to wooing the ladies, don’t come crying to me. I’ll just say “I told you so.”
Now that we’ve established that garlic won’t solve all your problems, let’s discuss how garlic will solve all your problems with women and make you an irresistible sexy hunk who swims through the Pussy Pacific all day ‘erry day:
… according to a new study, men who eat garlic actually smell more pleasant and attractive to the opposite sex—not their breath, but their body odor. And if that finding isn’t counter-intuitive enough, it’s made all the stranger by the fact that only men in the study who consumed a lot of garlic—the equivalent of four bulbs a day—enjoyed the effect.(via)
The study in question had 42 male participants who ingested 3 varying amounts and types (bulbs or capsules) of garlic. Researchers collected the participants’ body odor with pads that were worn for 12 hours and then sniffed by 82 women who rated said body odor by its “pleasantness, attractiveness and intensity.” According to Forbes,
In the first phase, the men ate 6 grams of garlic (about two cloves worth) with bread and cheese. The women who sniffed their pads didn’t rate their odor any differently than they rated the odor of men who ate only bread and cheese. In the next phase researchers doubled the amount to 12 grams, or four cloves. In this case the women judged the odor as significantly more pleasant, attractive and less intense than the non-garlic odor. In the final phase the men consumed 12 grams in capsules and the women again rated their odor as more attractive and less intense.
While the study does not provide the “why” in terms of what in garlic makes the opposite sex more appealing, researchers believe that the “health-boosting benefits of eating garlic may be discernible in body odor, producing an olfactory marker of good health for the opposite sex to hone in on.”
Again, I feel the need to mention: garlic will NOT make you hot. Only less disgusting than you previously were…but if you’re already a 9/10 and decide to chow down a few bulbs of the white stuff a day? Hey, probably can’t hurt.
Home Alone Cast: Where Are They Now?
[H/T Forbes]