How can I have bad breath? I haven’t eaten a thing today!!! I am pretty hungry, though… 😊
Guess what – being hungry can cause bad breath just as much as eating odiferous food! When you don’t eat, your mouth and tongue become dry, and, as we all know, dry mouths are the festering petri dishes for bacteria that cause bad breath. That yucky feeling you get on your tongue is nothing more than clinging bacteria, just waiting for you to exhale and offend everyone around you!
Why NOT Eating Can Cause Bad Breath
Chewing food increases saliva content and saliva keeps the bacteria from growing on the teeth, in the gums and on your tongue. On top of that, when you are very hungry, your stress level can increase and stress can also cause dry mouth! So people who skip meals tend to have bad breath because their natural halitosis-fighter, saliva, is not produced.
But wait…there’s more! Stomach acids are produced whether you eat or not. So if you don’t eat regularly and if food is not digested, the stomach acids are not “fed” enough to do their job and they start breaking down, causing bad breath.
Your Diet Affects Your Breath, Too
Diet is important too. Not just the nutritional, balanced kind of diet, but weight-loss diet. You tend to get hungrier when you are starving your body of carbs and you are ingesting high fat or protein intensive foods. The body will then try to burn the fat for fuel (burning carbs is the more efficient way to energy, by the way). Burning fat instead of carbs for fuel can cause a chemical reaction called “ketosis” that can taint the breath with a foul scent.
Be sure if you are dieting to drink lots and lots of water – that will help keep your mouth and tongue moist. Of course, your daily oral hygiene is always important, so be sure you brush, floss, and clean your tongue daily with your TUNG Brush and Gel.
Oral hygiene won’t quell your hunger pangs, though, so be sure to eat healthy, balanced meals to fight that hunger breath!
