Drinking milk stops garlic breath

Scientists suggest drinking a glass of milk to get rid of ‘garlic breath’.
 
In tests with both raw and cooked cloves, milk ‘significantly reduced’ levels of the sulphur compounds that give garlic its flavour and pungent smell.
 
The authors told the Journal of Food Science it is the water and fat in milk that deodorises the breath.
 
For optimum effect, sip the milk as you eat the garlic, they say.
 
Mixing milk with garlic in the mouth before swallowing had a higher odour neutralising effect than drinking milk after eating the garlic in the trial.
 
And full-fat milk provided better results than skimmed milk or just water, according to breath samples taken from a volunteer.
 
One of the compounds milk counteracts is allyl methyl sulphide or AMS.
 
This cannot be broken down in the gut during digestion, and so it is released from the body in the breath and sweat.
 
Water, mushrooms and basil may also help neutralise garlic smells, the study authors Sheryl Barringer and Areerat Hansanugrum say, but add: ‘The results suggest that drinking beverages or foods with higher water and/or fat content such as milk may help reduce the malodorous odour in breath after consumption of garlic and mask the garlic flavour during eating.’
 
For more, click here.