Asparagus fact

You may have heard that some people's urine smells different after they have eaten asparagus. It's one of those topics that crops up from time to time in cooking newsgroups and discussions.

Benjamin Franklin wrote about it - though not on the Internet! - in 1702 and three hundred years later we're still talking about it.

Asparagus is filled with sulfur-containing amino acids that break down during digestion into six sulfur-containing compounds. These can impart a unique smell to urine as they are excreted. It's the same sulfur group that makes skunks smell, according to Barbara Hodges, a dietitian with Boston University's nutrition clinic, Evans Nutrition Group.

The jury still seems to be out on the cause. Some believe that only certain people have a gene for smelling the pungent chemicals, while others believe that only certain people have a gene for producing the chemicals in the first place.

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