So everyone else just smells like shit all the time in other countries? I smell like shit when I wake up in the morning, you wouldn't want to work next to me if I don't shower.

Not only from just existing, but between going to the gym a few days a week and doing regular cardio on other days, I just can’t imagine the absolute rank stink from not showering regularly. Once I thought I didn’t work up enough of a sweat weightlifting in the gym so went to bed when I got home, and the bed smelled like absolute trash the next day and neither me nor my partner could sleep there again without washing everything.

Maybe it’s just my neuroses or mental illness, but I can’t imagine smelling so badly and not showering even if I didn’t socialize with others, and can’t imagine I’d have many people to continue to socialize with (in USA so this is probably different in the OP’s country) if I smelled so bad when I went out.

That's not sweat, that's the bacteria on your skin. Use less soap and change your diet and you will encourage more healthy skin microbiome that can even smell pleasant.

You smell bad because of your diet.

Build up of aromatics in your adipose tissue that are released over time via your sebaceous glands, bacterial decomposition products of those compounds, and off-gassing of bacterial decomposition byproducts from your orifices contribute to bad body odor.

I'm going to be your pal and tell this to you to help you out: You stink, and people are just too polite to say it to your face

I'm not sure who you are responding to here. Wrong thread?

I agree that diet is a factor. I started living in Japan back in the late 80s and spent a lot of time helping newcomers learn how to speak Japanese and get around in society. One thing I noticed is that people fresh from America had an odd buttery smell that went away after they ate a Japanese diet for a few weeks.

バッタ臭い / Battakusai / Stinks of butter was a derogatory term for foreigners in the past. Butter was unpopular with locals in Japan for a long time by what I've read, but I never thought the expression was being literal. Interesting.

People are different and skin biomes can change. The ways that showering habits (frequency, duration, temp, ph, soap use, etc) effect skin biomes is poorly understood. The largest factor in body odor is the bacteria living on our skin, so it is entirely conceivable that with a different showering regime your skin biome would change over time and cause you to generate BO differently.

You don't need to use any chemistry for shower unless you are greasy, thus no pollution and washing your skin with just water is good for it if not outright neutral. You do you, some people sweat and/or smell more, some people less, some have very social lives and some go out of their home just for shopping or not even that.

And some simply don't care if they disgust others. World is big, no need to bash Americans or any other nation.

> washing your skin with just water is good for it if not outright neutral

Not true, excessive washing even just with water dries your skin plus not everyone has exactly pH neutral showering water. So yes, you can wash every day and then apply lotion/cream or you can just not wash and avoid all of that.

Japanese people are also obsessed with bath/shower every day before sleeping.

In summer: you need a shower to wash the sweat off

In winter: you need a bath to get as warm as possible before going to bed. Until recently (~1980s-90s) houses were expected to be ephemeral, whether they were knocked over by an earthquake or the new owner, so people skipped "luxuries" like insulation.

>In winter: you need a bath to get as warm as possible before going to bed

Have you tried an electric blanket?

If you do any physical work, you get sweaty, sweat means bacteria, means bad smell. Some of us don't like to stink, also don't like our beds to stink.

What fraction of people do any substantial physical work in an average day? I reckon about 25%.

This might be more a reflection of your social bubble. I'd reckon the percentage would be more likely to be flipped. Especially if we're talking about a global population.

Men also generally stink more. Just being too warm for a few minutes means smelly armpits and crotch for loads of dudes.

Hackernews told me that this is just another microbiome that needs to be brought into balance, after which the smell goes away; and that soaps and shampoos disrupt that balance.

As one who's hung out with bohemian vagabonds who didn't make a routine habit of bathing, my nose has told me otherwise.

Nice people but... humans smell funny in general.

> humans smell funny in general

A fact of life that seems pointless to try to avoid.

One person's BO is another person's aphrodisiac. Biochemistry is fun, lean into it!

It's really not that simple. The bacteria that live on my skin don't stink like that after a lot of exercise.

Fun fact- most Koreans don't have the same sweat gland that many others have that produce the type of sweet that the stinky bacteria feed on, and thus don't stink like Americans from sweating (they do have their own smell, from what I understand, but it isn't as pungent) and thus they don't usually use deodorant/antiperspirant. It is my understanding some other Asian groups don't stink or don't stink as much, as well, due to differences in the sweat produced.

It's true of most East Asians and to a lesser degree with South Asians. Surprised I had to scroll so far to find this comment.

As someone who lived in China for years I always laugh at this myth, you clearly haven't traveled by crowded Chinese subway every day if you think Chinese don't stink (and they make up pretty much all East Asians).

And not to sound racist, but black people have (often) very different stench from the rest, that one is not Chinese (racist) myth.

But to be honest every race/nation I met stink, your nose is just blind to the people you meet most often. It's same with my apartment when I return back after longer vacation I can notice its specific (new) smell still even after years living there (especially if I won't leave windows a bit open for air exchange), but if I'm away just for a day or two I don't smell anything.

It's not a myth. The distinction here isn't general body odor, which everyone has, but a specific gene (ABCC11, the same that controls for wet or dry earwax). Those with the gene have a chemical in their underarms and groins that bacteria feeds on, producing a stinkier odor.

Also, I've ridden plenty of crowded buses and subways in China and haven't noticed as much body odor as Westerners. So our anecdotes cancel out there.

Is that link for personal water use or does it account for farming?

What do you suggest to people who exercise everyday?

OP is confusing overall use which includes agricultural and industrial use with municipal use.

It doesn't really matter, ebcause it applies same to all countries, so it doesn't explain why Americans need to consume 4 times more water per capita (3794 litres) than Germans (855), while Czechs for instance even half of the Germans (422).

And don't go at me with average temperatures nonsense, Spain and Greece are warmer than most of the US and have half of US water consumption, Thailand little bit over half, Malaysia less than 1/3 of US consumption.

I'm from a northern European country and I moved to a tropical country. I sweat buckets here, quite possibly literally.

You can bet I shower daily. Sometimes I shower several times a day (although fortunately I live by the sea so I try to jump in there instead when possible). I also sometimes go though several shirts in a day and have to take care to manage my electrolytes and hydration.

Showering this often is not a luxury, it's a necessity. To avoid becoming a stinking sweat monster who would send children screaming, I mean.

Locals don't have this problem. I've been living here for years and I don't think my body is going to adapt.

America is a big place, and a lot of it is hot and populated with many people of a similar ancestry to mine. Maybe it's where their "obsession" comes from?

Last time I checked US was not a tropical country. Obviously when I travelled around Southeast Asia I was showering daily. We are talking here about your regular American living and working in AC home and moving between them in AC car and shopping in AC shops and not doing manual labor.

> Locals don't have this problem.

Oh they do, but for instance they use prickly heat powder in some of those tropical countries. And that's also reason why everything is airconditioned and you freeze in buses, cinemas, etc. so they are comfortable and don't sweat that much.

US water consumption per capita is 4X higher (3794 litres) than Germany (855), 9X highter than Czechia (422).

Even warm Spain and Greece have half of US water consumption, Thailand little bit over half, Malaysia less than 1/3 of US consumption, so there is no reasonable excuse why Americans waste that much water.

Looking at municipal water usage per capita,

US uses 175.9 m3 per capita

Germany uses 236.5 m3 per capita

Czechia uses 57.5 per capita

So individuals in America (i.e. showering) do not use abnormally high amounts of water. The country in total uses more water because we have more farming and more industry than Germany or Czechia.

https://www.worldometers.info/water/us-water/

https://www.worldometers.info/water/germany-water/

https://www.worldometers.info/water/czechia-water/

You're fixating on water consumption as a measure of the impact of showering, but for a households usage it's more likely the amount of grass Americans maintain that pumps those numbers up.

I would also like to point out how massive America is, it has almost all the climates, and it has almost all the infrastructure variants in regards to where the water comes from and how impactful that usage is.

By your own source the vast majority of that use is agricultural and industrial [1]. If you look at say, Germany they use 19.68 billion m^3 for municipal purposes vs 58.39 in the US, but the US population is about 4x that of Germany, so Americans use less water than Germans(for example). The Japanese use a little less per person for municipal purposes, but not by a lot.

People are down voting you because you're muddling domestic use with agricultural and industrial numbers and you're being a judgemental asshole. And you can't be both innumerate and an asshole at the same time here.

[1] https://www.worldometers.info/water/us-water/

People shower everyday and even multiple times a day in the tropics. It's not some weird American obsession.

I take several showers /day in summer but they are usually quick 1 minute rinse to cool and remove sweat. Only one is done with soap.

Some people would probably use more water in one 10 minute hot shower / day. Never understood people taking long showers.

household freshwater consumption in the usa is insignificant compared to irrigation freshwater consumption, so shower frequency is irrelevant; what matters is, roughly, bushels of rice produced per capita