Posted on 02/14/2017 6:28:37 AM PST by kevcol
A taxpayer-funded study set to find out if people can smell their own "asparagus pee."
Researchers at Harvard on two active studies that received over $3 million last year surveyed nearly 7,000 people to determine if their urine smelled funny after eating the vegetable. The results were published in the BMJ scientific journal
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The results concluded a "large proportion of individuals of European-American descent cannot smell ‘asparagus pee'—the unpleasant odor present in urine after people eat asparagus," according to the T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
those of us in the NatGas Industry recognize such “odor” as Mercaptan-Sulfide.
DMDS
I guess it’s expensive to track down what gene does what.
No, but I can smell skunk underleg deodorant....,.azzholes
“the unpleasant odor present in urine after people eat asparagus,”
In my experience, urine has an unpleasant odor no matter what you eat, or even don’t eat.
DRAIN THE SWAMP (keep the asparagus)
A waste of money to study waste product.
“Taxpayer-Funded Study Asked if People Could Smell ‘Asparagus Pee’”
Well??
Could they??...
Curious minds want to know!!
:)
You are too kind. :-)
Whats next? A study to see if people can determine if water is wet or not?
An exceptional waste of my tax dollars.
Funding for stuff like this has gotten completely out of hand, IMHO.
I know I could have done it for far less.
But what is the point? Ben Franklin wrote about asparagus pee smell
Anyone who eats asparagus frequently knows you can...others may not notice. But, if they were inclined to notice, it is certainly noticeable.
3 Million, huh, well...it is hard to believe we actually ave any oversight on spending at all.
Hmmm. I must be one of the few "lucky" ones, then. I'm about as European-American as they come, and I can smell it very strongly. Hey, I'm a minority! Where's my reparations?
Everyone’s pee smells like asparagus after they digest it. Deny this all you like, but those green stalks contain something called asparagusic acid, among a couple other compounds, that gives urine that unique odor.
As your body digests food, it breaks down different compounds through the enzymatic process. In the case of asparagus, its compounds are volatile and released as a vapor through the urine. That’s the aroma you smell when the compound exits your body, according to HuffPost’s conversation with Dr. Anish Sheth, a gastroenterologist at Princeton Medical Group and author of What’s Your Baby’s Poo Telling You?. ..."
(there's actually more on this at the link)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/31/asparagus-pee_n_6077006.html
It's been that way since the sixties. Remember Proxmire's "Golden Fleece" award? This would be a sure-fire winner.
The Golden Fleece Award (1975–1988) was an award given to public officials in the United States for wasting public money. Its name is a reference to the Order of the Golden Fleece and a play on the verb fleece, as in charging excessively for goods or services. United States Senator William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, began to issue the Golden Fleece Award in 1975 in monthly press releases. The Washington Post once referred to the award as "the most successful public relations device in politics today."
We need a multi-million dollar study to determine why we’re spending so much on stupid multi-million dollar studies!
Yes. Sarcasm.
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