Beat Bad Breath

Beat bad breath

Q. Have you any tips for avoiding bad breath?

A. What you eat can definitely play a role in preventing bad breath. Your liver is responsible for detoxifying the body and excreting impurities, but if it is overwhelmed with processed foods, artificial additives, and alcohol, then the toxins travel back into the bloodstream and the lungs, where they are exhaled as yuck breath.

Clean up your diet, and eat more fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and healthy fats. Berries and citrus are particularly helpful as the vitamin C they contain provides an inhospitable environment for odour-causing bacteria, plus they help prevent gum disease, which is another cause of bad breath. Raw, crunchy produce, like apples, carrots and celery, increase saliva production and help dislodge debris stuck between teeth. Parsley is rich in chlorophyll, a well-known breath deodoriser with germ-fighting properties.

Avoid the obvious culprits like onion and garlic, and if you can’t, then nibble on fresh green herbs or sip herb tea afterwards – spearmint and cardamom are very effective. Be careful with diets – extreme fasting and low-carbohydrate diets cause the body to burn fat and produce unpleasant-smelling ketones, which are excreted on the breath, while high protein diets can have the same effect, with digested proteins releasing ammonia.

Source : Nature and Health