YOGHURT could be the key to beating garlic breath, a study shows.
Whole milk plain yoghurt helps prevent 99 per cent of the chemicals responsible for garlic’s most offensive pongs from escaping into the air, US researchers found.
GettyEating yoghurt could help reduce your risk of garlic breath, a study shows[/caption]
Protein and fats in the breakfast staple helped trap the vegetable’s odours.
Greek yoghurt, which has higher protein levels than most other yoghurts, could be particularly effective, researchers said.
And we could see special high-protein yoghurts sold with the aim of fighting garlic breath in future, they added.
Professor Sheryl Barringer, of Ohio State University, said: “High protein is a very hot thing right now — generally, people want to eat more protein.
“An unintended side benefit may be a high-protein formulation that could be advertised as a breath deodoriser in addition to its nutritional claims.
“I was more excited about the protein’s effectiveness because consumer advice to eat a high-fat food is not going to go over well.”
Professor Barringer previously showed apples, mint and lettuce can help reduce garlic breath in separate research.
She said: “With apples, we have always said to eat them immediately.
“The same with yoghurt is presumed to be the case — have your garlic and eat the yoghurt right away.”
Her latest study, published in the journal Molecules, looked at how yoghurt interacts with garlic smells in a lab.
Researchers placed 1mm thick slices of raw garlic in glass vials and added 100ml of whole yoghurt to them to see how it affected smell levels.
They also tested how the water, milk protein and butterfat affected levels of smell, to see what parts of yoghurt were causing the effect.
A special mass spectrometry machine was used to detect levels of sulphur chemicals released into the air, which are responsible for the garlic’s smell.
The whole yoghurt reduced compounds by 99 per cent for raw garlic and up to 94 per cent for fried garlic.
Both the protein and fat components caused similar reductions, while water contributed less.