Why do my feet smell?

Whenever I get stressed at work, my feet start smelling. I have stopped wearing closed shoes and eating meat or eggs to no avail. What can I do?

Enos

Dear Enos,
Foot odour is caused by breakdown of sweat by foot bacteria. Sometimes a fungus infection between the toes or bacterial foot infection also resulting from too much sweat left to accumulate and soften the foot skin can cause the odour.
Feet have as many as 250,000 sweat glands that constantly produce about 500mls of sweat to keep feet moist otherwise dry feet would develop cracks (enkyakya). Sweat itself has no smell but when in excess and accumulates on the skin, it will be broken down by skin bacteria leading to a repugnant smell.

Unchanged socks or even shoes which hold on to sweat create a good growth environment for bacteria and a fungus, worsening matters. This is one reason it is important to maintain proper foot hygiene and wearing dry clean shoes and socks.
Synthetic closed shoes also increase sweating and unfortunately many people will indulge in obsessive foot washing that keeps the feet much more wet, ending up smelly or vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infection.

Some people’s feet over sweat because they are genetically inclined and stress and anxiety simply makes it worse. Since you say you remove your shoes when you reach office, you require to wash and dry them well when the shoes are off. Unfortunately stress and anxiety increase sweating and this could be the reason why your feet smell when you are stressed at work.
Some foods containing garlic may increase foot odour. Coffee, sodas or even energy drinks should also be avoided since they contain caffeine that may increase sweating and therefore foot odour.

When some people with a condition called trimethylaminuria eat meat, fish or eggs, their sweat may end up smelling like fish since these have choline, which is converted in our gut into the fishy compound trimethylamine (TMA).
The solution for such people is to stop eating these foods. Otherwise anybody with foot odour requires good foot hygiene to control it. Shoes and socks should allow feet to breathe and should therefore be spacious and made of leather. Washing the feet daily with soap and water and keeping them dry is also important.

Also keeping socks and shoes dry, keeping toenails trimmed, soaking the feet in salty water or tea for at least 30 minutes (Tea contains tannic acid, which apart from drying out the feet, can inhibit growth of germs) and properly drying them can remove foot odour.
Failure of these measures means visiting your doctor who may prescribe antibacterial or antifungal powders, lotions, creams and anti-perspirants.