18

I eat garlic sometimes with my meal but after that my breath remains bad for long time. I tried to use toothpaste, orange juice, and chewing gum, but can't remove the smell for a day. Can somebody recommend a more efficient trick to remove the garlic breath?

2
  • 5
    Have you tried flossing? Dec 26, 2014 at 2:52
  • Mix activated charcoal, mint oil, pure chlorophyll, baking soda, and water. Swish as mouth wash.
    – user22124
    Sep 13, 2017 at 8:33

6 Answers 6

14

Things that should work:

Of all the foods, raw apple was found to be particularly effective - indeed, study author Sheryl Barringer says this is what she reaches for after eating garlic. Professor Barringer, of Ohio State University’s department of food science and technology, suggests apples may help by 'deodorising' the enzymes in garlic.

And from the same article.

Now U.S. researchers have revealed which foods can help eliminate the unpleasant odour of garlic. They say apples, lemon juice and, less surprisingly, mint were particularly effective.


How to Get Rid of Bad Breath from Onion or Garlic

  • Use mustard - I don't know about this method. Swishing it around in your mouth is suppose to work.

Take a teaspoon of mustard and swish it around your mouth for a minute before spitting it out. Then take another half-teaspoon and swallow. This will go down to the stomach and kill the smell throughout your body.

  • Eat minty foods to freshen up your breath - This is best done after brushing your teeth. Make sure you wash your tongue and floss as this will help get all odour causing particles out.

Fresh parsley, mints and minty tea can all remove the odour from onion and garlic.1 Gum with xylitol is particularly good for freshening up your mouth.

Sometimes, the smell of garlic can also seep through the pores of your skin or linger on your clothes, so spraying yourself with perfume/cologne is also a good idea.

Cleaning your mouth and using these methods should remove the odour.

Try removing the odour from your clothes and fingers as well.

Drinking (milk can reduce the odour and so can Yogurt) when eating the garlic is helpful for prevention and eating the garlic with bread or vegetables (green vegetables are suggested as the Chlorophyll is said to counteract the odour of the garlic) is suppose to help as well. Just using one of these methods will probably not work without proper oral hygiene.

  • Sometimes the smell of the garlic persists in your mouth pores and in your body. Drinking fluids and eating other foods usually helps. For your mouth using odour removing mouthwashes or holding baking soda in your mouth for as long as you can and moving it around helps.

  • In a lot of cases the smell is residing in your tongue, proper tongue hygiene should be done to stop it. Scrubbing your tongue with baking soda or a good toothpaste should work.

  • Chewing the garlic less will lessen the amount of odour that needs to be cleaned.


Additional Info

Related: How can I get the smell of garlic off my hands?

7 Ways to Get Rid of Bad Breath from Onions or Garlic

Floss your teeth carefully. Brush your teeth, and also your tongue thoroughly. Your tongue is responsible for 80-90% of the germs. Finish it off with mouth wash. If you have the smell of garlic on your hands, wash it off with some lemon juice.

The bolded text shows how important it is to clean your tongue to remove odour and maintain cleanliness. Merely brushing is not effective as shown above.

Slice off the end of the garlic and peel it. Cut the garlic in half. Then simply, take out the little stem in the middle from both sides of the garlic. This has been shown to reduce some of the bad breath.

Green tea has been shown to neutralize some of the compounds in garlic and onions that give you the bad smell. Drink some green tea to improve your breath.

See also How can I get rid of garlic breath? and How to suppress bad breath after eating garlic or onion?

There are also suggestions to chew coffee beans and exercise to remove the waste from your body faster in general.

1
  • I use parsley. It does a remarkable job. Jun 11, 2015 at 11:17
6

I want to add that most of the time the bad breath from garlic is not caused from residue in your mouth but rather from the digestion of the garlic. Sulfur containing compounds from the garlic (and other smelling food) like allicin are broken down in your stomach and liver... and result in sulfur compounds in your body. A lot of these compounds leave the body via breathing and urinating (and as far as I know sweating) in the form of the stable allyl methyl sulfide, which last a long time in your body.

As often known in Arabic/Middle Eastern countries, milk and other milk products help with the smell as well as string taste.

Literature: Suarez, F.; Springfield, J.; Furne, J.; Levitt, M. "Differentiation of mouth versus gut as site of origin of odoriferous breath gases after garlic ingestion," Am. J. Physiol. 1999, 276(2 Pt 1), G425–30. Maier, Karyn (5 June 2010). "Garlic and Body Odor". Livestrong. Retrieved 8 October 2012.

Or easier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_breath

2

Nibble on a clove. It will outsmell the garlic. I do it after every meal.

1
  • 1
    Now that's a usable tip instead of brushing teeth. I heard that garden parsley can also be used.
    – ott--
    May 11, 2016 at 20:56
1

Brush w/any toothpaste and put baking soda on top then brush your teeth and tongue 2x or 3x until thers no more odor .it works !

0

Floss, brush your teeth, and use mouth wash.

0

One used to get capsules in my locale named "no-pong". Worked a treat, but I haven't felt the need to use them, or have seen them, in years.

They consisted basically of vegetable oil and parsley extract. So I am guessing eating a few sprigs of fresh parsley and chasing it down with a tablespoon of olive oil, after consuming the garlic, may help (sort of forming a layer to prevent the sulfur compounds from escaping).

Would not know if it worked though. I just accept the fact that others also smoke and eat other unpleasant foods, about which they don't worry, so I just brush my teeth as normal and for the rest people must just man up quid pro quo.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.