The researchers suggested that women may have evolved to prefer the type of smell that eating garlic - which is a highly nutritious² food - produces in armpit sweat, because it suggests the person is healthy.

 

Garlic has antibiotic³, antiviral and antifungal properties and studies have suggested it can help reduce the incidence of colds, and even high blood pressure and some cancers.

 

Or, it could simply be that the antibacterial action of the garlic makes the armpits smell sweeter by reducing the density⁴ of the microbes which cause the nasty odours, the researchers from the University of Stirling in Scotland and Charles University in the Czech Republic said.

 

'Certainly, breath odour plays a crucial role in most social interactions, but human axillary (armpit) odour is also an important factor in intimate relationships,' the researchers wrote in the journal Appetite.

 

'Our results indicate that garlic consumption may have positive effects on perceived body odour hedonicity (the pleasure derived⁵ from it), perhaps due to its health effects, for example antioxidant properties and antimicrobial activity.

 

'From an evolutionary⁶ perspective, formation of preferences for diet-associated body odours was possibly shaped by means of sexual selection.

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