Losing Weight and Feeling Great

Losing weight — it’s hard enough without the specter of bad breath.  Why do we get that awful smell, and is there anything we can really do about it (aside from gargle every five minutes)?

Losing Weight and Bad Breath — Why?

First is the "why" — why when we go on a diet we start being odoriferous?  There are a couple of reasons.

1. Our diet detoxes us. Now I’m talking a sensible weight loss plan here — not a total fad like eating nothing but hot dogs or peanut butter.  When we start eating properly, and start to lose weight, the toxins stored in our body start releasing.  Some toxins may give us additional sweating, others strange body odors and some…bad breath.  The good part is that as you detox more and more, the odor gets less and less.
2. Some diets are more prone to bad breath.  A high-fat, high protein, low carb diet (example:  Atkins) will naturally give you additional interesting scents.  Part of it may be that some of the natural breath cleansers (many fruits and veggies) are pretty much absent.  Also, the release of ketones in your body can produce bad breath all by itself.  Check out WebMd for more information on low-carb diets and bad breath.

How Sweet it Is

Now even if losing weight and bad breath goes hand-in-hand, it is not a reason to quit dieting — face it, extra weight is worse for your health than bad breath!  But there are some things you can do to start smelling sweeter again.

The first is, naturally, brushing regularly.  Why?  One is to remove food particles that can cause odors.  The other is to keep your teeth and gums in good shape — you don’t need a tooth or gum infection to smell even stronger!

You can also pop sugarless mints occasionally.  While this has merits, especially for a quick fix, you don’t need all those extra chemicals in your diet (more to detox).  So keep your mints around for emergency fixes, but don’t totally rely on them.

Drink more water, less coffee.  Coffee adds to the smell, while water washes it away.  You can also use green tea, which is light and sweet in smell and guess what — it’s good for your teeth!

The standard remedy of chewing herbs can also help.  Just about everyone knows about parsley, but have you also considered any of the mint family — mint, peppermint, spearmint and even chocolate mint (although that’s one you’ll have to grow yourself)?

Consider a colon cleanse to hasten a detox.  There are gentle ones that work over the course of a month.  There are also, ahem, explosive ones that work very quickly.  (They aren’t really explosive, although it may seem that at first.)

Well, see you later — I’m off to brush my teeth and drink some water!