Well, if you do, here’s a way to combat it: yogurt.
New study findings suggest that yogurt may be another weapon in the battle against bad breath.
“Yogurt intake may improve oral hygiene, namely tongue-coating bacteria and halitosis,” study author Dr. Kenichi Hojo of Tsurumi University in Yokohama, Japan told Reuters Health.
He and his colleagues found that study participants who consumed 90 grams of yogurt twice a day for six weeks tended to have lower levels of hydrogen sulfide and other volatile sulfide compounds that contribute to bad breath.
They presented their findings during the 83rd General Session of the International Association for Dental Research held last week in Baltimore.
Previous studies have also pointed to the benefits of regular yogurt consumption. One report found that women who ate yogurt at least three times a week were less likely to have recently developed a urinary tract infection than women who ate such probiotic bacteria-containing foods less than once a week.
Other studies have found that yogurt plays a role in the prevention and management of bowel disease and other gastrointestinal conditions. Furthermore, another study showed that people who eat yogurt regularly may have a lower risk of cavities.
Ah, yes, but the studies don’t communicate the status of yogurt in India, where it is hailed as a substance that is good for your health and can also keep you cool in scorching hot times. When I lived in India for a total of about 3 years, I was urged to always eat yogurt with the food I ordered because it would cool off your mouth (I always order the hot food). And when I almost had heatsroke, an Indian family in New Delhi gave me a long talk on how critical yogurt was to adjust the body to heat.
Of course, in those days I hated yogurt because it tasted like..yogurt. It was only later in what I call The Yogurt Revolution when yogurt was made to taste like…ice cream. Now THAT’S yogurt I can eat (give me a hot fudge sunday made of yogurt at McDonald’s any old day). This family also told me about villagers who went out in the fields carrying a special bucket that had yogurt in it, so they could work under the hot sun and not get heatstroke.
In any event, I’ll tell you this: eating ice-cream-like yogurt to get rid of your bad breath is a lot more FUN than rinsing with Listerine..
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.