Fruity-smelling urine often signals high blood sugar from diabetes, as the kidneys excrete excess sugar, creating a sweet scent, but it can also indicate severe conditions like diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) or rare metabolic disorders such as maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), requiring prompt medical attention for diagnosis and treatment, especially with symptoms like increased thirst, fatigue, or frequent urination.
Additionally, if you have diabetes, your urine might smell sweet or fruity. Some people with diabetes say their pee smells like “Sugar Smacks,” an overly sugary cereal with a frog mascot. This sweet odor is due to the excess glucose your body is trying to flush out.
Urine may smell sweet if it contains extra glucose, a type of sugar. Sweet-smelling urine may be due to an underlying condition, such as diabetes, dehydration, a yeast infection, or a genetic condition called maple syrup urine disease. Urine can reveal a lot about someone's health.
Foul-smelling urine may be due to bacteria. Sweet-smelling urine may be a sign of uncontrolled diabetes or a rare disease of metabolism. Liver disease and certain metabolic disorders may cause musty-smelling urine.
Sweet smelling urine
Several things can make your pee smell sweet, including a UTI, high blood sugar, or uncontrolled diabetes. If you notice your pee suddenly smells sweet, call your doctor right away for a urinalysis.
Kidney failure can make urine smell strongly of ammonia or have a fishy odor, often due to built-up waste products (amines) or infection, signaling concentrated urine from dehydration or kidney dysfunction. Other signs alongside bad-smelling urine include foamy, bloody, or cola-colored urine, swelling, fatigue, and changes in urination, all pointing to potential kidney issues that require a doctor's evaluation.
A popcorn smell or sweet-smelling urine is often an early indicator of untreated or undiagnosed diabetes. Diabetes affects your blood sugar levels and causes high ketone levels. The excess sugar and ketones make their way into your urine, resulting in that tell-tale popcorn smell.
If you are dehydrated, your urine may smell like ammonia. Maple syrup urine disease. This genetic disease can cause the amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine to build up in the blood. People with this condition may have urine that smells like maple syrup.
Liver disease can make urine smell musty, sweet, or like ammonia due to the buildup of toxins (like dimethyl disulfide/methyl mercaptan) that the failing liver can't process, leading to a specific scent known as foetor hepaticus, often accompanied by dark urine and jaundice. This ammonia-like odor comes from excess urea breakdown, while a sweet smell can also signal uncontrolled diabetes, so a medical evaluation is crucial.
You should worry about urine smell and see a doctor if it's persistent, accompanied by fever, pain/burning during urination, cloudy or bloody urine, or if it smells sweet (potential diabetes) or rotten (potential infection/kidney stones). While often temporary due to dehydration or food, persistent strong or unusual odors, especially with other symptoms, warrant medical attention to rule out UTIs, diabetes, or other conditions.
It's normal to have a small amount of sugar in your pee. But if urine (pee) test results show more than 0.25 mg/ml of glucose, that's glycosuria. Sometimes, glycosuria is a symptom of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). But it can also happen in people with normal or low blood sugar levels.
There are three types of ketone bodies present in the blood in ketosis: acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. Acetone is responsible for the fruity odor. People often describe the odor as smelling like nail polish remover, which often contains acetone as a solvent.
There are a number of common causes for smelly urine. Certain foods. Different strongly-scented foods, such as brussels sprouts, asparagus, onions, and garlic, can make strong-smelling or foul-smelling urine. These types of foods are converted into sulfur compounds which can smell like rotten cabbage or eggs.
The Smell: Fruity
Fruity-scented sweat (or breath or urine) could be a sign of a serious complication of diabetes called diabetic ketoacidosis. “This occurs in individuals with diabetes, mostly type 1, if blood glucose levels are not managed,” Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.
4 Urine Smells With Lupus: Chicken Broth, Ammonia, Fruity, and Fishy. Medically reviewed by Zeba Faroqui, M.D.
Fruity-smelling urine can be a sign of other diseases and complications. Diabetic ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis is a dangerous complication of diabetes that happens when ketones build up in your blood. It causes symptoms like fruity breath, sweet-smelling urine, excessive thirst, and tiredness.
Symptoms of acute liver failure may include:
Foetor hepaticus is a feature of severe liver disease; a sweet and musty smell both on the breath and in urine.
Vitamin B supplements may also contribute to strong smelling urine, which may smell slightly musty. However, this is not a cause for concern. When you don't drink enough water, urine becomes more concentrated – this is reflected in its colour and smell.
There are quite a few reasons why your pants might smell like urine (ammonia), such as: Bacterial Vaginosis. Urinary Tract Infection. Menopause.
What Healthy Urine Looks Like. Urine is made by your kidneys. It's the liquid byproduct of your body breaking down waste and extra water. Healthy urine is clear (not cloudy), odorless and in a shade of yellow that can range from very pale to a darker, amber-like hue.
Patients affected by trimethylaminuria will often have fishy-smelling urine. Trimethylaminuria is a genetic disorder in which affected individuals have an enzymatic deficiency that makes them unable to metabolize TMA. Because they cannot metabolize TMA, affected individuals have a buildup of TMA in their bodies.
Early signs of diabetes often include increased thirst and frequent urination, extreme hunger, fatigue, blurred vision, slow-healing sores, and unexplained weight loss (especially Type 1) or weight gain (Type 2), but Type 2 symptoms can be mild or absent, so regular checkups are key. Tingling in hands/feet, frequent infections (yeast, UTIs), and mood changes can also appear.
If urine has a lot of waste with little water, also called concentrated, it might have a strong odor from a gas called ammonia.