The chances are high that if you are fond of eating garlic in your food, you are looking for a quick fix for bad breath from garlic. This is for the obvious reason that garlic makes the breath smell. Curries of all kinds are a popular

convenience food for many of us, and curries have garlic added to them as part of their ingredients. Eating a curry without garlic is unthinkable. After we have finished eating the curry, the breath smells, and this is called garlic bad breath.

So, what can be done about garlic bad breath?

You could try drinking a glass of water after eating the curry, and this will help relieve the dry mouth feeling which comes after eating spicy foods. A dry mouth usually means a smelly breath. The two usually go together. But garlic bad breath is not something you can get rid of very easily.

There are herbs you can eat with the meal, such as fresh parsley, but it is difficult to chew, though it is surely no accident that parsley is frequently served with curries. Cardamom is also used to help alleviate garlic bad breath. But for me, it only masks the odour and does not take it away completely.

The smell of garlic is difficult to get rid of because once it is digested, its oils are released into the bloodstream and circulated to the lungs where the smell is exhaled for many hours after it has been eaten. Time alone will get rid of it, but methods of speeding up the process are not totally effective. Mouthwashes and eating something minty will help to disguise the worst of the smell but that is all they will do.

The best way of coping with garlic bad breath is to have the same meal yourself. It is only people who have not eaten garlic in a meal who can smell it on the breath of those who have.

[photo by Sebastian Mary]