Why does garlic make our breath stink? People have been keen on eating garlic since at least 5000 years ago. Its spicy and slightly spicy taste is injected into curries, cakes, fried chips and even occasional desserts. But these delicious dishes may be accompanied by aftershocks: sometimes the unpleasant smell of garlic lasts for hours after aftershocks. So, why do people like the smell of garlic, but hate it? Professor Cheryl barringer, director of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Ohio State University, said.

Chopping garlic releases a chemical mixture called sulfide. She said that these volatile molecules give garlic a "unique, * * * floral fragrance". When we cook garlic, sulfide molecules will rise into the air, filling the room with pleasant fragrance. "Then we put it in our mouths, and the volatiles enter our noses, [and] the smell really makes us like it," barringer told Life Science.

Wilfredo Cologne, a professor and director of the Department of Chemistry at Rensselaer Institute of Technology in Troy, new york, said that the initial attraction of garlic may be related to its potential health benefits. There is evidence that the compounds in garlic help to lower blood pressure and have antibacterial effects. Cologne told Life Science that these benefits may make us subconsciously crave garlic. At least until it drives us crazy. [Why does cutting onions make me cry? ]

Most of the bad breath caused by diet comes from the rotten food residue in the gap of the mouth. Barringer said, but the real garlic flavor starts before the food enters your stomach. There, gastric juice further decomposes garlic, releasing sulfides and other vitamins and minerals. Most of these molecules enter the intestine for additional treatment, but one of them, allyl methyl sulfide (AMS), is small enough to cross the stomach wall and enter the blood.

AMS is just one of many components of garlic's unique flavor. Barringer said, but it's the only bacterium small enough to get into the blood so quickly. When it passes through your pulmonary circulation, AMS passes through the membrane that allows oxygen and carbon dioxide to enter your body effortlessly. When you exhale, with carbon dioxide, you will release disgusting AMS.

Barringer said that this effect can last for 24 hours. But she and her colleagues found that some food can help you. Barringer and Rita Milondo, a graduate student, reported in a paper published in the Journal of Food Science in 20 16 that eating apples, lettuce or mint would significantly reduce the concentration of garlic by-products. These foods are effective because they contain phenolic compounds, which combine with sulfides, making them too big to spread through the air.

Of course, there is another option: simply learn to embrace this unique phenomenon. Barringer said that garlic itself smells good. We're just not used to smelling food coming out of our mouths, not going in.

"It's not a bad smell, it's just taken out of context." . Try to think of it as a small time capsule of delicious food you have enjoyed.

How to kill vampires? Why does eating spicy food cause a runny nose? Why does soda bubble? Originally published in Life Science.