Yogurt may chase away bad breath, study says

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Yogurt may chase away bad breath, study says JoAnn Guest Mar 26, 2005 19:40

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KAREN PALLARITO

HealthDay

 

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If you've tried mints, mouthwash and toothpaste but your breath still

offends, maybe you should skip the oral hygiene aisle. Next time try the

dairy case.

 

In a small study, Japanese researchers have found that eating

traditional, sugarless yogurt reduces the malodorous compounds that

cause bad breath. It also cuts down on plaque and gingivitis, they

discovered.

The study, funded in part by a major Japanese yogurt maker, was

presented March 10 at the International Association for Dental Research

annual meeting, in Baltimore.

 

Halitosis, or bad breath, is caused by anaerobic bacteria that breed on

the back of the tongue, producing volatile sulfur compounds. One of

those compounds, hydrogen sulfide, is the stuff that causes your breath

to smell like rotten eggs.

 

Lead author Kenichi Hojo and colleagues from Tsurumi University in

Yokohama, Japan, decided to investigate yogurt because of its effects in

preventing gastrointestinal problems and research indicating that

regular yogurt consumption reduces the risk of dental decay.

 

" We are thinking that yogurt must be good for oral health, also, " said

study co-author Nobuko Maeda, a professor of microbiology at the

university.

 

Researchers recruited 24 volunteers. Each person received identical

instructions for oral hygiene, diet and medication intake. In the

initial phase of the study, participants were asked not to consume

yogurt or products containing streptococci and lactobacilli, such as

cheese and pickled vegetables. During the second phase, they consumed 90

grams of yogurt, or a little more than 3 ounces, twice a day for six

weeks.

 

Researchers collected samples from the participants' saliva and tongue

coatings, and measured volatile sulfide compound concentrations in the

air of people's mouths. Those measures showed that, at six weeks,

hydrogen sulfide levels decreased in 80 percent of volunteers who had

bad breath.

 

" So we thought two yogurts per day did work for improving (bad breath), "

Maeda said.

 

In addition, plaque and gingivitis was significantly reduced in people

with bad breath after the yogurt-intake phase of the study, compared

with the initial phase when they did not consume yogurt.

 

However, the authors said there were no noteworthy differences in the

number of oral bacteria in the mouths of people before and after eating

yogurt.

 

Bruce J. Paster, senior staff member in the department of molecular

genetics at The Forsythe Institute in Boston, suggested the authors may

not have looked for all the bacteria that were present. " Typically, the

bacterial microbiota and their end products are the culprits for the bad

breath, " he said.

 

" In theory, " he added, " their hypotheses may be valid. For example, the

odor-causing species may have been replaced by some 'good' species in

the yogurt. "

 

Research participants consumed yogurt made especially for the study,

Maeda said. As with other yogurts, the starter culture consisted of a

combination of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus.

What differed was the strain of bacteria they used, she said.

 

The yogurt maker that helped fund the study hopes to make its product

commercially available this fall, she added.

 

On the Web:

 

www.ada.org, The American Dental Association has information on treating

bad breath in their " Oral Health " section.

 

 

 

 

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" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

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