Best Way to Rid Lingering Onion or Garlic Breath!

Dr. Pearl E. Whites
2 days ago
2 min read

Quick! You have a hot date this evening and you still have onion breath from last night’s nachos. What’s the quickest way to get rid of lingering garlic or onion breath??

Why the Smell?

Onions infiltrate lungs, blood stream and pores after four hours

Garlic and onion come from the same culinary family. When eaten they both produce a sulfur compound that creates the indistinguishable and lingering bad breath. You have between one to four hours (one to two hours at the peak) to combat onion and garlic breath with neutralizing foods and mouthwash. After that time frame, no amount of food or mouthwash will adequately offset the bad breath because the sulfides by then have infiltrated into your bloodstream, lungs, and even skin pores!

Milk, apples, green tea help fight onion breath

Short-Term Fix If Under Four Hours?

Certain foods effectively neutralize these sulfur compounds but only in the mouth and stomach and within hours of consuming garlic or onion: Uncooked apples, green tea, and milk products. Water is also effective but only because it dilutes the compounds and flushes out the sulfur.

Best Remedies of Ridding the Stench AFTER Those 4 Hours

This potent breath can last up to two days! Between 4-48 hours you now have three bodily areas this miasma has lodged into: lungs, blood, and skin.

Here are the top three ways to quickly purge these gases from your body:

sweating during exercise helps remove onion breath

Drink lots of water. Sulfides are hydrophilic and willingly attach to water. The more water you drink, the more sulfides get removed.
Exercise! Cardiovascular exercise over 30 minutes causes two things: sweating and heavy breathing. This releases the sulfur gases from your lungs, flushes your blood, and purges those compounds from your skin pores.
Hot Water. Take a hot shower, bath, or hop in a sauna. This cleanses the skin pores releasing the sulfides close to the skin surface.

What is the Best Mouthwash to Rid Onion/Garlic Breath?

Therabreath is one of the best mouth rinses to fix short-term onion breath

Of the three popular mouth rinses that target fighting bad breath (CloSYS, Smartmouth, Therabreath), the most effective is the ADA-endorsed Therabreath. This mouth rinse is alkaline and best neutralizes the sulfur compounds from garlic and onion that cause bad breath. However, if using any mouth rinse after the 4-hour window from consuming garlic and onion, no amount of mouthwash will adequately neutralize bad breath.

Summary

If eating garlic or onion, you have two hours (up to four) to neutralize your breath. This includes consuming apples, green tea, or milk products; or using Therabreath mouth rinse. Between 4-48 hours the best way to remove the lingering and penetrating stench is drinking lots of water, heavy exercise, and/or a prolonged hot shower.