Have you recently embarked on a low carb diet? Noticed a sudden change in your breath from ‘not bad’ to ‘really rank’?!

Well, it might surprise you to learn that there’s actually a link between low carb diets and bad breath.

Low carb eating plans such as the Atkins and South Beach Diets typically work by restricting the amount of carbohydrates a person can eat. Instead, people on these types of diets tend to eat more foods containing protein.

Carbohydrates are the fuel that give our bodies energy, but when we don’t have sufficient stores to use our bodies begin to burn fat stores – a process known as ketosis.

When your body’s in a state of ketosis it uses up far more water than it would normally require and this can leave you quite dehydrated. This dehydration in turn leads to less saliva in your mouth thereby creating the ideal breeding ground for oral bacteria, which are the most common cause of halitosis in the majority of people.

In addition, there are certain things that can aggravate these bacteria which are responsible for bad breath when present in unusually high amounts.

Eating lots of protein is one such factor. These bacteria in your mouth play an important role in breaking down proteins in the foods you eat. During this process they give off sulphur compounds which are normally relatively unnoticeable, but when lots of compounds are released bad breath is a common occurence.

So, if you eat a higher than normal amount of protein, more sulphur compounds are given off, increasing the likelihood of your breath smelling foul.

To learn more about the link between low carb diets and bad breath and what to do about it, you might find this other article helpful.

You might well think that bad breath is mainly caused by the foods that you eat. After all, as anyone who’s ever enoyed a nice spicy curry will testify, your mouth hardly smells of roses afterwards!

Or perhaps you think that most bad breath is the result of some kind of medical condition, for example problems with your stomach or intestines. Or maybe you just simply think it’s the result of not brushing your teeth properly every day.

Well, you may be surprised to hear that in actual fact the #1 cause of bad breath is bacteria that we all have – and need – in our mouths.

Indeed, research studies estimate that these bacteria are responsible for over 90% of all bad breath cases. So while there are a small percentage that are the result of a serious medical condition, most cases of halitosis are caused by these common oral bacteria.

In regular amounts, these bacteria plays a very important role in our bodies’ digestive processes by breaking down the proteins in the foods we eat. They are also responsible for helping us to digest diseased oral tissue and dead cells in our mouths.

When these bacteria come into contact with certain amino acids in foods, certain sulphur compounds (known as Volatile Sulphur Compounds) are given off. Normally the smell from these sulphur compounds is relatively unnoticeable, but when the bacteria are present in unusually large amounts, the smell can quickly turn rancid and rotten leading to halitosis.

However, the good news is that there are certain things that you can easily do to regulate these bacteria and avoid them multiplying out of control, which in turn should get rid of your bad breath problem.

One particular report we’ve found online which looks at these simple steps is The Bad Breath Cure Revealed. It also offers advice on cheap and easy home remedies which can help banish bad breath once and for all.