It’s long and green. Sometimes it’s fat, and sometimes it’s skinny. It can sometimes be leafy. It can be dirty, and it can be clean. You can find it in the trash. What is it?
I know what you’re thinking. And NO, it is not Oscar the Grouch. Ha ha I know i’m not funny at all, but at least I tried.
Okay so now you’re probably wondering where I am going with this..
This past Monday was Labor Day, and we had some family over for a grill out. We called it BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat). Well my uncle ended up bringing some veggies to grill, and one of them was ASPARAGUS.
By the way asparagus does have leaves. The things sticking out of the sides of the asparagus are technically called leaves.
Anway, I love asparagus, and could eat it with probably any meal. While we were eating, someone brought up how after you eat asparagus, your pee smells like it. My aunt, who was sitting next to me, mentioned how some people can smell asparagus pee, and some people cannot. This is something I had no clue of, and instantly I wanted to know more. So I decided to write my next blog and research a little on how some people can smell asparagus pee, and some cannot.
In the small amount of research I did, I stumbled upon two different articles, an NPR “Food For Thought” article and a Huffington Post “Food & Drink” article. The author of the NPR article, Angus Chen, talks about how he never even knew that asparagus made your pee smell even though he had eaten plenty of it growing up. In Chen’s research, he discovered that there are about 800 genes that make the difference in who smells asparagus pee and who doesn’t. Obviously Chen has one the genes that makes someone not smell asparagus pee. So my questions become “Does everyone’s pee smell like asparagus, and some people just can’t smell it?” or “Do some people just not have the smell of asparagus pee?”.
Kate Bratskeir for the Huffington Post answers my question with her chat with gastroenterologist Dr. Anish Sheth. According to Bratskeir, when you digest asparagus it gives off a thing called “asparagus acid”. Sheth states that for the most part, people’s digestive process is almost the same, but the ability to detect odors can vary between people. Bratskeir explains, “This is because our perception of smell — just like our perception of color — is completely personal” (par. 3). This concluding my questioning about how people do and do not smell asparagus pee.
So in conclusion, after anyone eats asparagus their pee smells, but some people have the ability to smell it. Almost up to 50 percent of people can smell asparagus pee according to Bratskeir. She also makes a point that surprised me. Every two or three people out of 100 cannot smell vanilla. That is so weird! Still today scientist don’t really know which of the 800 genes makes the difference between whether people smell asparagus pee or not. Scientist do, however, know that somewhere in these 800 genes, some people cannot smell certain scents like asparagus pee.
Even after I have answered all of my questions about who does and doesn’t smell asparagus pee, I still have one very serious question. I guess you could say it is sort of two different questions.
Does Oscar the Grouch eat asparagus, and if he does, can he smell his asparagus pee?
Thanks for coming to read my rambles!
Rambles with Rachel 