Thursday hot topic: asparagus pee!

[Jenise]

This thread is now closed. By Order of the Legion of Decency.

But you keep looking....

Favorite asparagus story--forgive me if I've told it before: my adopted brother Jon's real brother was in an drug trial for Lou Gehrig's disease, which he had, and which required him to come to Jon's town, Atlanta, from Nashville where he lived once a month. Bruce would come in on Sunday afternoon, stay over with Jon and his wife, then head to the testing site Monday morning carrying with him a container of the morning's first pee as required. Jon served asparagus with EVERY one of those precious Sunday night dinners. You've never seen two men deal with such a tragedy with both so much love and so much laughter.

Sometimes I hesitate to eat it even though I love it. Not so much because of the forthcoming "stinky pee" as my husband calls it, but because I'll be up several times that night for trips to the bathroom. It's a serious diuretic!

Carrie, so is AGE!

It's a mercaptan, and I don't think it is bad for you in the least. Unfortunately I can smell it quite well, I would be just as happy to miss out on the experience.

Frank,
I've had numerous students over the years ask me about the asparagus/asparagine connection over the years, and one of the most common questions concerns the smell of urine. But I must correct you in one particular: dimethyl sulfide, the odorant, isn't a mercaptan; it's a sulfide. Alas, one of the reactions performed in my labs from time to time produces dimethyl sulfide and we have to take great precaution to avoid the lab smelling as if we'd eaten a metric ton of asparagus.

Mark Lipton

Ewww....