Sweet smelling poop may indicate diabetes. There are many reasons why your pooping might taste sweet after a night of drinking. You have been drinking alcohol or other drugs. Your body produces less digestive enzymes during the day, which means that it takes longer for the digestion process to finish up and digesting food into usable nutrients. If you drink a lot of alcohol at one time, then your stomach will produce fewer digestive enzymes than if you were not drinking much at all! Alcohol causes your blood sugar level to rise very quickly. When your blood sugar rises too high, then the pancreas releases insulin to lower the blood sugar level down. Insulin helps to break down carbohydrates into glucose and fat into triglycerides (fatty acids). Fat and carbohydrate are what make up most of what you eat. So when your body breaks them down into these two types of substances, it makes sense that they would be broken down even faster! The result is that your body starts releasing hormones to tell you to stop eating so fast. These hormones cause your body to release digestive enzymes and other chemicals that break down the sugars and fats into their constituent parts, called metabolites. Metabolites are small molecules made from the breakdown products of foods. They are used by our bodies in various ways, but they don’t do any harm.
Sweet smelling pee may indicate a medical problem. Many medical problems cause sweet smelling pee. Sometimes the body overproduces a waste product that causes a strong odor and a sweet taste to your pee. This is usually not a serious condition. However, if the odor is accompanied with other symptoms or persists, you should contact your doctor for further examination.
Sweet smelling pee could be a combination of many factors. Alcohol and other drugs can make your pee smell very sweet or slightly fruity. In some cases, this may meaning that you are dehydrated. But if your pee does not have any other odd characteristics then you do not need to worry too much about it. Also, certain medications can also cause your pee to smell sweet as well.
If you have been taking any new medication then you should ask your doctor about it.
You can do a few things to make your pee stop smelling sweet. First of all, drinking more water can help flush out your system and get rid of excess waste. If the smell persists, try cutting back on the amount of sweet foods and drinks that you consume. This may be more difficult than it sounds for some people. Very often, a sweet smell to the urine is no cause for alarm.
If you have any other symptoms, however, such as weight loss or stomach pain, then you should contact your doctor for further examination.
Here are some common medical conditions that cause sweet smelling pee:
Carcinoid syndrome: a rare condition in which certain types of nerve cells in a person’s gastrointestinal tract become malformed. The addition of malformed cells causes the digestive tract to create a large number of metabolites. These products have a sweet smell and are excreted in the urine.
Cystic fibrosis: this condition happens when a person produces unusually thick mucus that clogs the lungs and other organs. The pancreas makes extra thick mucus that gets broken down and turned into sweat, vomit, and pee. All of these fluids have a sweet smell.
Diabetes: in this condition, a person’s blood sugar level is consistently too high. The body breaks down the sugars but also releases metabolites as a by-product.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease: also called GERD, this refers to the backward flow of stomach acid into the esophagus. The stomach acid causes a sour smell in the breath and can also cause a sweet smell in the urine.
Inflammatory bowel disease: refers collectively to a group of conditions that feature chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. The most common of these conditions are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Inflammation in the digestive tract causes malformed cells that lead to the creation of excess metabolites. These by-products have a sweet smell.
Kidney failure: this condition occurs when the kidneys no longer are able to remove waste from the body. The build up of waste products causes a strong odor to the urine.
Lead poisoning: also called plumbism, this condition results when a person has too much lead in their body. Minerals and other elements contain small amounts of lead, and over time the lead can build up in the blood and other tissues. Even low levels of lead can cause a sweet smell in the urine.
Tuberculosis: also known as TB, this is an infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable with medication, but without treatment it can spread to other organs such as the brain, kidneys, and more. If a person has a urinary tract infection caused by tuberculosis, then their urine will have a sweet smell.
Urea cycle disorder: this is a rare inherited condition that prevents the normal breakdown of the compound called urea. Urea is a waste product that comes from the breakdown of amino acids in the liver. Left untreated, a buildup of urea causes a person’s skin and urine to have a sweet smell.
Uremia: this refers to the build up of nitrogenous waste and other products in the blood. A high concentration of such waste products gives the urine a sweet smell.
If you have any of the above conditions, then you should see your doctor for treatment. If you do not suffer from one of these conditions, then you may want to look at possible causes of sweet smelling pee unrelated to disease.
Other non-disease causes of sweet-smelling pee include:
Drinking too much water: excessive amounts of water are excreted from the body in the form of urine. If you drink too much water, then this can dilute your urine to the point where it has a sweet smell.
Eating large amounts of fruit: certain fruits such as apples, cranberries, and peaches have a sweet taste that can be detected in the urine. Eating large quantities of these fruits can cause a person’s pee to have a sweet smell.
Eating foods with sorbitol: this is a type of sugar that is used as a diet sweetener. Some people experience gas, abdominal pain, and diarrhea from eating products with sorbitol. The body gets rid of this sugar by excreting it in the urine, and this can cause a person’s pee to have a sweet smell.
Eating asparagus: the digestion of asparagus causes the creation of a smelly sulfur compound. Some people excrete this compound in their urine instead, which can give the urine a sweet smell.
Eating foods with fructose: fructose is a type of sugar that the body processes differently than other types of food. Eating a lot of foods that are high in fructose can cause a person’s urine to have a sweet smell.
Substances known as mercaptan and skatole: these substances have a very distinct smell that is detectable even in very minute quantities. Foods such as beets, broccoli, and cabbage tend to naturally have a small amount of these substances. Eating these types of foods can alter the smell of a person’s urine.
These are just some of the possible causes of sweet-smelling pee. If you aren’t sure what is causing your condition, then you should see your doctor right away. A medical professional can help determine if your urine has a benign cause or if something more serious might be going on.
Sources & references used in this article:
Unicorn and Rainbow Poop by E Adams – 2018 – books.google.com
Smell impairment: can it be reversed? by TM Davidson, C Murphy, AA Jalowayski – Postgraduate medicine, 1995 – Taylor & Francis
Between two stools: scatology and its representations in English literature, Chaucer to Swift by PJ Smith – 2015 – manchesterhive.com
A rose by any other name: would it smell as sweet? by J Djordjevic, JN Lundstrom, F Clément… – Journal of …, 2008 – journals.physiology.org
