Six surprising reasons you can get bad breath - and how to manage it

Bad breath, or halitosis, is an embarrassing problem we can all relate to from time to time – but if you or your child get persistent bad breath, it may point to an underlying imbalance in the mouth or further down in the gut.

Luckily, there are plenty of natural ways to restore any imbalances, to help freshen your breath and rebuild your confidence. In this blog, I’ll share the reasons why halitosis can become such a problem for you, and how you can keep it at bay with some nutritional know-how.

I often knew when my kids were coming down with an illness, as they would wake up in the morning with punchy-smelling breath. This luckily went away when they got better, and it was a good gauge to know if they needed more support to their immune system. However, for some people, bad breath seems to linger on and on – and is not related to a virus or gastric upset.

There are several reasons why you can have persistent bad breath, and some of these triggers may be surprising. Read on to find out more about six of the main causes of bad breath, and what you can do about it.

Get our lovely Healthy Bites newsletter each week!

Each week, you’ll get an amazing recipe, a useful health tip, and an ingredient to jazz up your shopping basket! We don’t share your details with anyone else.

1) Some foods cause bad breath

We’ve all reached for a breath mint after a strong cup of coffee or a spicy meal to sweeten the breath. Foods that we often enjoy like garlic, onions, horseradish, coffee, and dairy, are all common culprits for lingering bad breath. But why do these effects last for so long?

Bad breath is usually caused by an overgrowth of bacteria in the mouth. Foods that make your mouth dry or acidic create a good environment for bacteria to thrive, increasing the amount of waste they produce. This waste includes volatile sulphur compounds, or VSCs, which are ultimately responsible for persistent bad breath and gum disease.

Diets high in protein or refined white sugar may also encourage more oral bacteria, again leading to high amounts of VSCs and a lingering odour.

What helps
Maintaining a balanced diet can help to keep bacteria at bay. This might involve avoiding coffee and garlicky food during the daytime and switching from refined sugars to naturally sweet foods, like fruits and honey.

To find out which foods are particularly problematic for you, you could keep a food diary and look for links between what you eat and when you experience bad breath. Once you’ve identified the main culprit, you can start to find alternatives.

2) Oral hygiene and gum health

Good oral hygiene is key for reducing bacteria, and gum health plays an important role.

When food debris gets stuck between the teeth and around your gums, bacteria have a feast. In the worst cases, this can lead to gum disease, which is a very common cause of halitosis.

Streptococcus mutans is a particularly troublesome strain of bacteria. It builds up on the teeth over time, forming plaque, which can lead to tooth decay and cavities if not cleaned away.

What helps
Regular brushing is key, paying particular attention around the gums. Dentists recommend brushing firmly but not too hard, for two minutes, twice a day. Since some places are difficult for your toothbrush to reach, flossing and gentle gum care are also recommended.

Blis K12 live bacteria as well as xylitol-based products such as gums and mints can help to balance the oral bacteria and keep the mouth healthy.

3) Understand the role of your oral microbiome

The health of your oral microbiome, which is the ecosystem of microscopic bacteria that live inside your mouth, is vital to oral health.

We all have bacteria in our oral cavity, and we need to create a good diversity of beneficial bacteria to keep our teeth, gums, tonsils and tongue healthy. It’s when the microbiome becomes unbalanced with inflammatory and invasive bacteria that we can begin to experience problems like halitosis and gum disease.

Those VSC producing strains, like Fusobacterium nucleatum, are particularly problematic when it comes to bad breath.

What helps
Consuming live strains of good bacteria, like Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, can restore an unbalanced oral microbiome; even just swishing these around inside your mouth can be beneficial! You can find these live strains as dietary supplements, or in fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir and kimchi.

4) Allergies and bad breath

If you regularly suffer from allergies, an overproduction of phlegm can lead to excess mucus in the back of your throat. This can be a breeding ground for those VSC producing bacteria, causing bad breath that might be more challenging to combat.

What helps
Reducing your exposure to the allergens you react to like pollen, dust, or animal dander could help to reduce the amount of mucous in your throat. It may again be helpful to keep a food and allergen exposure diary and look for patterns in your diet, exposure to allergens, and symptoms of bad breath.

You can also try natural methods like increasing your vitamin C, zinc, or quercetin intake to reduce post-nasal drip and other symptoms of high histamine levels. You can do this by consuming more citrus fruits, apples, red peppers, red onions, nuts and seeds, or through dietary supplements.

5) Acid reflux and GERD

Bad breath can also be caused by acid reflux, where undigested food and stomach acid back up into the oesophagus and mouth. Acid reflux is an uncomfortable, sometimes painful experience; it can occur when the sphincter muscle between the stomach and oesophagus relaxes at the wrong time, allowing undigested food and stomach acid back up into the throat. Persistent acid reflux can lead to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Common causes of acid reflux include acidic foods such as orange juice and tomatoes, a Helicobacter Pylori bacterial infection in the stomach, too much or too little production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach and hormonal changes. Some medications including NSAIDS can cause reflux as well as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption.

What helps
Mastic gum, a resin derived from the mastic tree, is often used in traditional medicine to ease symptoms of acid reflux. Mastic gum also helps to increase salivary flow, which may also improve bad breath. You can find this as a dietary supplement.

Slippery elm, gentian, and artichoke are also commonly used to naturally calm symptoms of acid reflux. You can take these as dietary supplements in a gut tonic or add artichoke into your regular diet.

Finding out food triggers and removing these from your diet can also reduce the symptoms of acid reflux.

6) Constipation and bad breath

Did you know that an unhealthy bunged up gut can lead to halitosis? Scientists have found that constipation is sometimes linked to bad breath, even finding that bad breath improves when the constipation and faecal loading is treated. When waste sits in the digestive system for too long, bacteria have longer to grow and the toxins and gases they release can build up, resulting in halitosis.

What helps
You can support your gut health with a balanced diet including plenty of fibre-rich foods like flax seeds, kiwi fruits, prunes, dates, and figs.

Prebiotics found in many plant-based foods such as underripe bananas, leeks and asparagus as well as supplements such as partially hydrolysed guar gum (PHGG) can help to get things moving.

The live bacteria strains, which are commonly found in fermented food, can also support your gut microbiome to return to a healthy balance. Fermented and cultured foods include sauerkraut, yoghurt, kefir and pickles. Live bacteria supplements can also help to replenish your good bacteria.

Round up

Struggling with bad breath could make anybody feel self-conscious (or less attractive to kiss!), but you don’t have to manage it alone. If the tips I’ve given in this blog don’t seem to work on their own, our NatureDoc clinical team can help you to find out what’s going on in the gut. To get to the root of the problem and freshen up your mouth over time, book in with us for oral microbiome and gut microbiome testing and work out a plan to help you have fresh breath again.

Lucinda Recommends

We know many people want to know what products we recommend but unfortunately for regulatory reasons, recommendations have to be private. However all is not lost, you can join NatureDoc Live! for monthly Zoom Q&As with Lucinda, as well as a forum for asking questions, and access to recommendations in our blogs which appear when you log in.

Join NatureDoc Live!

Six surprising reasons you can get bad breath – and how to manage it