When stewing, sautéing, or marinating your favourite meals, one ingredient that cannot be overlooked by any cook is garlic. With its powerful aroma and flavour, even a few cloves of garlic can significantly improve the taste of any dish no matter how simple it is. Best of all, it’s got health benefits as well, having been used to help treat everything from high blood pressure to skin infections.
However, after eating garlic, you may find yourself in a socially unpleasant situation… because of garlic breath. In some circumstances, brushing your teeth or gargling with mouthwash is not enough to remove the odour. So in this article, we will show you the natural solutions to kill the smell of garlic breath.
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Where does garlic breath come from?
Garlic includes four key chemical components that cause the pungent odour in your breath – diallyl disulfide, allyl methyl sulphide, allyl mercaptan, and allyl methyl disulfide. Surprisingly, none of these chemicals are found in garlic when it is raw. Only when the cloves are chopped or crushed do they develop and become released.
Moreover, the main cause is allyl methyl sulphide, which takes a long time to break down in your body after eating garlic. Even if you clean your teeth or rinse your mouth, bad breath can linger for hours due to this component.
Natural yogurt kills garlic breath, research suggests
There’s no denying that garlic is tasty, but there’s also no denying that its stench lingers long after you’ve eaten it. A group of researchers from The Ohio State University discovered that one specific ingredient prevents the deliciously stinky scent of garlic from escaping into the air, and that its properties may one day be able to fight back against dreaded garlic breath once and for all.
Best of all, it’s something you can easily find in the supermarket. The solution?
Natural yoghurt.
Sheryl Barringer, senior research author and professor of food science and technology at The Ohio State University, mentions several characteristics of yoghurt that make it an effective garlic odour captor. Their results, published in the journal Molecules, suggested yoghurt alone reduced 99% of the most odour-producing volatiles in raw garlic.
In this study, the researchers discovered that the distinct components of yoghurt (water, fat, and protein) help neutralise some of the odour of garlic, and the combination of fat and protein found in yoghurt is particularly effective.
After further testing, it was also revealed that a protein complex made of whey and casein (a protein present in milk) performed the best of the isolated protein trials, and that a larger concentration of butter fat aided in the fat-only experiments.
Barringer stated, ‘An unintended side benefit may be a high-protein formulation that could be advertised as a breath deodoriser in addition to its nutritional claims.
‘We know proteins bind flavour…in this case, it could be a positive.’
While the study focused on whole milk plain yoghurt for garlic breath, Barringer argues that because Greek yoghurt contains more protein, it should be even more effective at eradicating garlic breath. Fruit additions don’t appear to have any beneficial or bad effect.
What are other alternatives for garlic breath?
- Tea
When it comes to combating garlic breath, tea can come in handy. Herbal teas like mint, chamomile, or fennel offer natural components that help neutralise the harsh odours associated with garlic. After your garlic-infused lunch, make a hot cup of your favourite herbal tea and sip it slowly to freshen your breath.
- Water
Drinking enough water throughout the day can help keep bad breath at bay. This is due in part to the fact that a dry mouth can enhance the generation of sulphur, which can result in bad breath. Furthermore, drinking water or other fluids can aid in the removal of any leftover food particles or bacteria, both of which can add to odour.
- Apples, carrots, and celery
Beyond drinks, apples, carrots, and celery, for example, can also be surprisingly good at reducing garlic breath. Chewing these fibrous meals cleans your teeth and gums while also increasing saliva production, which aids in the neutralisation of odorous substances in your mouth. Keep a snack of raw vegetables or fruits on hand to munch on!
- Spearmint Gum
Spearmint flavouring is often used in toothpaste, breath mints, and chewing gum. It has antibacterial and antimicrobial characteristics that may aid in the killing of the germs in your mouth that cause foul breath, like garlic breath. Beyond that, it may also help prevent acid reflux, which may lessen the aftereffects of garlic breath and onion digestion.
In conclusion, garlic breath does not endure forever, even though its effects do! However, you should not worry because there are lots of natural solutions to get rid of garlic breath – and you can also easily find them all in your kitchen!