Why Do We Love Garlic But Hate Garlic Breath?
3:59:20 2019-05-25 874

Most meal-induced bad breath comes from leftover food particles decaying in the crevices of the oral cavity. But true garlic breath doesn't get its start until the food hits your stomach, Barringer said. There, gastric juices break down the garlic further, releasing sulfides and other vitamins and minerals. Most of these molecules proceed to your intestines for additional processing, but one — a tiny molecule called allyl methyl sulfide (AMS) — is small enough to slip through your stomach lining and into your bloodstream.

 

AMS is just one of many components of garlic's characteristic aroma. But it's the only one small enough to worm its way into your blood so quickly, Barringer said. As it circulates past your lungs, AMS just as effortlessly passes through the membranes that let oxygen and carbon dioxide into and out of your body. When you exhale, along with CO2, you release a puff of garlicky AMS.

 

The effect can persist for up to 24 hours, Barringer said. But there are a few foods that can come to your rescue, she and her colleagues have found. In a 2016 paper in the Journal of Food Science, Barringer and graduate student Rita Mirondo reported that eating apples, lettuce or peppermint significantly reduces the concentration of garlic byproducts a person breathes out. These foods work because they contain phenolic compounds, which bind with the sulfides and make them too big to go airborne.

 

Of course, there is another option: Simply learn to embrace the unique phenomenon. There's nothing about the aroma of garlic breath that makes it inherently unpleasant, Barringer said — we're just not used to smelling food coming out of people's mouths rather than going in.

 

"It's not that it's a bad odor, it's just that it's out of context," she said. Try considering it a tiny time capsule of the delicious meal you once enjoyed.

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