So apparently dudes smell sexier to ladies when they eat this food

I think we can all agree that men look more attractive when they are holding food. Here, girl, I got you this pizza. And a side of tacos, with an Oreo McFlurry for dessert. Know how you love ice cream with your tacos. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

But according to a study recently published in the science journal, Appetite, it’s not only the noms dudes bring us that can cause sparks to fly. What guys eat can directly affect how attractive they seem. The experiment involved one particularly surprising snack: garlic.

Garlic is delicious … when eaten in the privacy of your home where you have access to a liter of mouthwash and enough toothpaste to brush a few times before any human contact. But does its smell really make girls go googley-eyed?

Apparently, yes.

42 men were given garlic to eat in three different phases: two cloves with bread and cheese, four cloves with bread and cheese (I’m already attracted to everyone in this study already), and four cloves in capsule form. The participants had to wear pads all over their bodies for 12 hours. Those stinkers were given to 82 women, who were required to sniff and rate the smells based on attractiveness, intensity, and pleasantness.

Strangely, women gave the highest ratings for attractiveness and pleasantness to the two batches of body pads worn after eating four cloves worth of garlic. The scores didn’t vary between the groups where garlic was consumed with cheesy bread (please ask me to be in the next study) or in capsule form.

One of the study’s co-authors, Craig Roberts, commented on why women might be attracted to men who’ve eaten a ton of garlic:

“As the health benefits of garlic consumption include antioxidant, immunostimulant, cardiovascular bactericidal and anti-cancer effects, it is plausible that human odor preferences have been shaped by sexual selection … From an evolutionary perspective, formation of preferences for diet-associated body odors was possibly shaped by means of sexual selection. Previous research indicates that many animal species use diet-associated cues to select mates in good physical condition.”

He neglected to mention that high blood-garlic content could indicate that the male in question might know of a really good cheesy bread spot. The heart wants what it wants, and mine wants cheesy bread.

(Images via Shutterstock, Fox/Giphy, Warner Brothers/Giphy.)