On Body Odors and Sugar Consumption

My wife and I have over the past 2-3 years shifted our diets away from refined sugar and more towards whole grains and vegetables (especially green leafy ones like chard and kale).  The Easter celebration got me to eat too much candy but I learned something fascinating from it.

Monday I biked home from work.  Usually this 20 minutes of mild exercise causes perspiration but no noticeable odor.  This time I started smelling bad.  The correlation between all the sugar I had consumed over the past 48 hours and the increased activity of the odor-causing bacteria on my body was strong.  I had to investigate. 

My suspicion was confirmed by a paper from 1927 in which researchers were investigating how sugar in sweat affects eczema (link to  publication).  Your body excretes sugar in your sweat.