HEALTH: Banish B.O.

2009/11/10

A balanced diet can help rid you of body odour. IT’S common for people to sweat in hot weather but when this perspiration is fermented by bacteria, the odourless sweat can turn into foul-smelling body odour.

Kimberly Foo, L’Oreal Malaysia’s training manager, said body odour can be influenced by changes in our daily diet.

Imbalances in our diet can also affect our internal detoxification and affect the friendly bacteria which live inside our digestive systems,” she said.

She said diet-wise, a balanced diet is vital if body odour is a problem.

“Try to consume a diet that is 60 per cent based on vegetables, fruit, pulses and grains. Body odour can be aggravated by a high-red meat, high-fat, high-sugar diet, that’s low in fibre, too,” she said.

Apart from diet, sometimes poor health such as liver dysfunction, diabetes, digestive problems (parasites, etc) and yeast infections can lead to body odour. If you suffer from any of these conditions, you might want to seek medical help.

If body odour is not caused by medical reasons, the use of a deodorant can help neutralise odour effectively.

She said a consumer/personal care behaviour poll last year by Garnier showed that Malays were the biggest users of deodorants, and were likely to start using the product to keep “fresh” at an early age because they wore more clothing than other races.

Chinese consumers tended to use baby powder to mask odour while Indians concentrated more on hair care. Men on the whole were not as sophisticated as female consumers when it came to deodorants and antiperspirants, using cologne on their underarms.

“Deodorants neutralise underarm odour whereas cologne can combine with the perfume to result in a more unpleasant smell,” she said. She said the research also showed that more women were keen on anti-ageing deodorants and formulations that promise an even underarm skin tone.

“Skin darkening can occur in the underarm area due to hormonal imbalances, pigmentation, scars and rashes that don’t fade.” A good deodorant should keep you dry and fresh and last the whole day. Also, try to avoid alcohol-formulations as they will dry skin.