Why can't we stand the garlic smell?

Garlic processed or eaten raw goes into the gastrointestinal tract when escaping the odor through the breath will no longer "smell" like the original. More importantly, no one likes the scent of other people's breaths.

Garlic is a drug, spice that appears in human meals at least 5,000 years ago. The spicy flavor of garlic is found in many dishes such as curry, pasta, chips, stir-fries, even desserts.

According to Lives Science , many people eat raw garlic, roasted garlic and feel that the dish loses its appetite without garlic. The aroma of the dish that is cooking with garlic also stimulates the appetite.

The breath smells garlic makes many people uncomfortable - (Photo: SCIENCE ABC).

However, if standing and talking with a person with garlic's breath, everyone is uncomfortable, even unbearable.

Explaining this, Professor Sheryl Barringer - head of the science and technology department at Ohio State University (USA) - said that when chopped, garlic releases a sulfide chemical compound.

These volatile molecules have a distinctive "pungent" smell. When we process garlic, sulfide molecules mix with the smell of other foods that fly into the air with a pleasant fragrance. When eating garlic, the delicious taste goes through the smell, the taste makes us feel good.

Normally, the remaining food particles in the teeth make the breath smell bad. But the garlic-smelling breath only appears when the food portion begins to digest gastric juice.

Here, enzymes break down food into small molecules, releasing sulfides, vitamins and other minerals. Most of these molecules will continue to be digested when passing through the intestine, but the tiny allyl methyl sulfide (AMS) molecule will pass through the stomach lining into the bloodstream.

AMS circulates through your lungs and drains out of your body through breathing, together with CO ₂ . At that time, the original garlic scent was no longer pleasant, but it turned into a smell that made you have to frown.

The "garlic odor" effect can last up to 24 hours after a meal. We can reduce this smell by drinking green tea, eating peppermint or chewing gum. These foods contain phenolic compounds, linked to sulfides that will make them "heavier" and do not evaporate in the air.

Besides, Professor Barringer also remarked: " The breath of garlic smell is not necessarily more foul than the smell of raw garlic root, but we are simply uncomfortable with all the odors that come out of other people's mouths ."

However, according to Professor Wilfredo Colón - head of chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York, USA), many people like to eat garlic may be aware of the benefits of food.

Some studies show that compounds in garlic help lower blood pressure and bring high antibacterial effects. We tend to like healthy things, so it's easy to eat garlic and smell garlic.

"The garlic smell is inevitable. If you're afraid, simply don't eat it," Professor Wilfredo Colón advised.

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