Don’t worry the next time you eat something with onions or garlic! With these steps, you can avoid bad breath and keep your discussions fresh. Onions and garlic are common ingredients in many cuisines around the world, contributing flavor to a variety of recipes. But, let’s be honest, they also have a negative side effect.
How do onions get digested in our bodies?
While onions and garlic have numerous health benefits, they contain fructans and sulfur-based chemicals that can cause bad breath. Raw onions are especially dangerous since they have a high quantity of these chemicals. Cooking breaks down some enzymes, making them easier to digest.
Allicin, a substance released when you slice or crush garlic, is responsible for the strong smell of garlic. Garlic breath, nevertheless, is caused by this chemical that is helpful to you breaking down into other molecules that include sulfur. These molecules enter your bloodstream and eventually make their way to your lungs.
Why does the effect remain so long?
A chemical known as allyl methyl sulfide (AMS) is responsible for the persistent bad breath. For onions and garlic, AMS enters the circulation and travels to the lungs, where it is exhaled through your breath, leaving an oniony or garlicky fragrance.
So how does this happen?
AMS is notoriously difficult to break down. It moves from your stomach to the small intestine. Because it is small enough to reach our bloodstream, it seeps out and travels from the intestine to the liver, mixing with the nutrients in the blood transported by the Hepatic Portal vein. As author Krish Ashok noted in the video, “The liver is a big security guard that breaks down or metabolizes the components that will not be circulated through the blood.”
The process is known as detoxification. AMS is not a poison, yet our livers strive to break it down. When you eat a lot of raw onions, our livers become overwhelmed and let it pass.The same principle applies when excessive alcohol is consumed, because the liver can handle more than a particular quantity.
From here, AMS travels with the blood to the pulmonary artery of the lungs, where it is drawn out by our lungs due to its volatility and then expelled with our breath. The similar mechanism applies to garlic, except that the number of molecules to be broken down is significantly more than that of an onion. As a result, even our sweat glands eliminate garlic from the body.
To get rid of the bad breath caused by onions:
- how to get rid of bad breath
Specialist recommends the following expert-approved strategies to reduce onion and garlic breath:
Citric Acid to the Rescue: Squeezing lemon or lime juice into raw onions will help neutralize the enzymes that cause odor.
The Power of Herbs: Rosemary and oregano, which contain Romanticism acid, can help treat foul breath.
Crunchy Cure: Raw fruits and vegetables such as lettuce, apples, and mint leaves might assist to freshen your breath.
- Drink Up: Green tea, which contains polyphenols, and milk, which has a greater fat content, can help conceal the smell.
- You can consume fresh food, especially apples and mint.
- Brushing and flossing after a meal
- Mouthwash can help with bad breath.
- Use essential oils, such as peppermint, rosemary, or myrrh.
- Use a scraper or tongue cleaner.
- Drinking enough water can help.
- Drinking green tea may help briefly.
- Chewing gum or consuming a mint
So, don’t be concerned the next time you eat something with onions or garlic! With these steps, you can avoid bad breath and keep your discussions fresh.
