How Changing My Diet and Oils Transformed My Sweat and Smell
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
Leah Williams specializing in Lymphatic drainage imparting knowledge and expertise in Somatic release. President and Owner of Lymphatic Somatic Massage by Leah. Licensed Massage Therapist for over 25 years.
In my mid-twenties, while working my "nine to five," I'd wake up each morning, shower, and apply my essential oils as always. I was fresh, smelling beautiful like flowers. Occasionally, after lunch, though, the tables would turn. I would return to my desk, and my armpits would begin to sweat. The struggle between the sweat and the deodorant would begin. By 5 o'clock, I needed to freshen up. This happened time and again. Was it the humidity of the Carolinas?
Ten years later, I was back in the North, living in New York City, still smelling fresh! I was still wearing the same essential oils after my morning shower routine. Later that evening, I grabbed some fried dumplings on the way to a friend's house for movie night. And it happens! My sweat and deodorant start to struggle once more. But this time, I am prepared. I had been researching the "lymphatic system," plus I had a memory from my teenage years of a similar occurrence after eating a burger and fries from a fast food joint. Eureka!
Those research juices had been flowing. I was no longer working that 9-to-5 and was now living in NYC, surrounded by diversity. I was reading, "Asians don't sweat," and "Asians have white earwax." Genetics? In my findings, I discovered that it was often environmental or cultural differences, rather than DNA. Oh, how many will come after me for that! But just explore with me for a moment. Once Asians move west to the Americas and start eating our hamburger-and-fried diet, their DNA suddenly changes! So, I decided to reverse engineer this migration and research a true Asian diet and whether or not it included the highly saturated fried fats we were accustomed to.
First, let’s consider our sweat glands. We have our axillary glands (armpits) and groin. These two produce sweat from lipids, whereas the remainder of our skin produces sweat mainly from saline. So, I purged all the fried food, then all oil, period! What were my findings? All of a sudden, I became of Asian descent! My earwax turned white, and I had virtually no sweat under my arms. Business was as usual. I still laundered my clothes and showered daily. But a few things had changed. Nearly a decade prior, I had ditched the old aluminum deodorant and started using a natural deodorant. And yet, I was fresh all day. I woke up, sweet-smelling. But ditching all the oil in my food was a task. So, of course, I had to slowly reintroduce my former diet. Or else, it's not science! What happened depended on what "type" of oils and whether they were "fried" or not. I must add that I was "vegan" at the time. When I stopped eating oils, it was as if I had opened all the windows in my house and had nothing but fresh air flowing throughout. I did not feel sluggish, and I smelled good!
In the 1980s, corn oil, Crisco, and margarine were all the rave. I was too young to have hormonal reactions at the time. But then, in the 1990s, canola oil became the favorite. We all had good cholesterol, and there were minimal traces of underarm musk. But something changed in the late 1990s. We started to hear that canola oil was extracted from a "poisonous" plant and that we needed to "beware" of our Canadian canola oil supplier. All of a sudden, our chocolate bars tasted less chocolatey, our hamburgers less beefy, and instead of "egg fried rice" and "egg foo young" with a little soy sauce sprinkled on top, by 2000, we started drinking "soy milk" because we were "lactose intolerant." We replaced scrambled eggs with scrambled "tofu" that we had never heard of before. Fast forward to 2026, and I can hardly find an Italian restaurant that doesn't use adulterated olive oil, which is part soybean oil. Let us take a moment to consider the fact that olive juice is actually not an "oil" at all! That's exactly what I said. What we call "oil" is the "juice" of an olive.
What exactly is my point? It's not just the amount of oils we consume, it's the type of oil. And don’t get me wrong, “French fries” are one of my personal selections. But when we do consume fried foods, ideally, it should be a fresh batch in fresh oil. If not, we have closed all the doors to our home, circulating air through an unchanged, dirty filter with pet dander and smoke all over it. We must explore how hormones such as estrogen, found in high estrogenic foods and oils, affect our lymphatic system. How do importation, preservation, fillers, lipids, saline, and water affect our lymphatic system? How is it that we not only "don’t" open our windows to our home but have also electrically charged our environment, making it necessary to consume more and more water just to stay hydrated? How do all these factors influence our lymphatic system? What is our lymphatic system? Why do we know so little about it? Its mysteriousness and its ability to heal, to "fight" cancer for us, given the proper care and environment.
Read more from Leah Williams
Leah Williams, President & Owner, Licensed Massage Therapist
Leah Williams pioneering lymphatic drainage on deeper levels brings awareness to the connection between the water of our lymph systems, our auric field, and our Soma. In her mid-thirties, over a decade ago, her own personal health challenges led her to research the lymphatic system, which in turn she merged that understanding into her massage practice. While on that journey after witnessing Somatic release in clients, she discovered her Soma. Once an orthodox monotheist instructor, she now understands the ancient traditions of cultures around the world and their contributions towards the path of rediscovering the Authentic Human. And our ability to heal from within, with the help of Creations Energy.
