London, Feb 19 (IANS): Having a charming boyfriend does not only mean you have won the world. Good looking, slim men also have less nasal bacteria than their heavier brethren!

New research reveals a link between Body Mass Index (BMI) and the amount of bacteria colonising noses.

The results show that heavier men harbour more potentially pathogenic species of bacteria in their nose, compared with slimmer, more traditionally handsome men.

“According to an evolutionary point of view, traits related to attractiveness are supposed to be honest signals of biological quality,” said Boguslaw Pawlowski from University of Wroclaw's faculty of biological sciences, Poland.

“We analysed whether nasal and throat colonisation with potentially pathogenic bacteria is related to body height and BMI in both sexes,” he added.

103 healthy females and 90 healthy males participated in the study.

Heights and weights were self-reported, while waist and hip circumferences were measured.

Six potentially pathogenic bacteria were isolated and identified from nasal and throat swabs.

The results showed that ‘colonised’ men were found to have a higher BMI than non-colonised males, although no differences were found in females.

This is the first attempt to study body morphology traits related to physical attractiveness in relation to bacterial colonisation in young people, said the study published in the American Journal of Human Biology.