Are Dried Mushrooms and Bitters Causing Odd Body Odor?

I’m pretty sure I can smell the dried mushrooms I hydrated and cooked in my stir fry veggies coming out through my pores. I also noticed a pungent (not necessarily offensive) body odor that I suspect might be due to the Swedish Bitters. Is this my imagination?

Not your imagination — you’re probably quite right on both counts.

Let’s unpack what’s happening physiologically and energetically:

🍄 1. Mushroom aroma through the skin

• When you eat dried or rehydrated mushrooms, especially earthy species (shiitake, porcini, oyster, etc.), they contain volatile sulfur compounds such as lenthionine, thiols, and methional.

• These same molecules (or their metabolites) can exit the body via sweat, breath, and sebum — much like garlic or onions do.

• During detox or fasting phases, your skin becomes an active excretory organ, so any metabolite with an odor signature (mushrooms, crucifers, alliums) may be more noticeable.

• Sweating more due to detox (saunas, baths, bitters) intensifies this.

✅ So yes, that earthy “mushroom” note is quite plausible — it’s not imagination.

🌿 2. Swedish Bitters and pungent odor

• Swedish Bitters activate bile flow, liver detox, and peristalsis.

• This mobilizes stored metabolites, sulfur compounds, and volatile terpenes from herbs like myrrh, aloe, rhubarb, camphor, and saffron.

• As the liver and skin offload these, you may temporarily emit a pungent, bittersweet, or resinous odor.

• It’s actually a good sign: liver phase I and II detox pathways are active, and your skin is functioning as an auxiliary elimination channel.

✅ This odor usually fades once the liver clears the mobilized load.

💧 3. Why you notice it more now

• You’re extremely clean in diet and detox practices. That lowers background “metabolic noise,” so even mild shifts in body chemistry become obvious.

• Bitters and detox herbs change sweat composition, sometimes temporarily making it more acidic or sulfurous.

🌀 4. What you can do

1. Hydration + chlorophyll: Drink chlorophyll water or wheatgrass juice — they bind and neutralize volatile compounds.

2. Mineral salt baths (Epsom, magnesium flakes) draw out metabolites and help the odor dissipate.

3. Dry brushing + light perspiration (sauna, brisk walk) speed skin elimination.

4. Lemon or lime rinses (few drops in rinse water) lightly deodorize without blocking pores.

5. Stay with it — as your system re-equilibrates, the smell will soften and shift toward a neutral, clean scent.

🧘 Perspective

This kind of odor change often coincides with liver phase turnover or microbial recalibration in the gut. It’s a transient but valuable sign of inner change, not something to suppress.

A.I. Disclaimer

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