Breath Mints....

[not2late]

Re: Breath Mints....

I brush and floss my teeth. I also swipe my tongue with the toothbrush a couple of times (gets rid of any teeny tiny food particles caught between the tastebuds).

Ketones don't smell "bad" or "foul". The smell is medically described as a sweet fruity smell.

So practice, good oral hygiene.

[Razorshock]

Re: Breath Mints....

Tic Tacs were recently made larger (at least here in the US), two of them more than gets the job done for me. I agree that the older, smaller ones were too small.

[LOWCARBINCLEVELANDOH]

Re: Breath Mints....

I wonder if you can still get Sen Sen. That stuff HAD to be sugar free.

ANyone remember that?

[LOWCARBINCLEVELANDOH]

Re: Breath Mints....

The facts on Sen sen. I guess you can still order it from Retro candy places.

[Elmark]

Re: Breath Mints....

I'm just wondering.....what do you guys do if you use mouthwash in your car? Open the door and spit it out in the street??

[wxguy]

Re: Breath Mints....

I brush and floss my teeth. I also swipe my tongue with the toothbrush a couple of times (gets rid of any teeny tiny food particles caught between the tastebuds).

Ketones don't smell "bad" or "foul". The smell is medically described as a sweet fruity smell.

So practice, good oral hygiene.

I am willing to bet the level of "foulness" of the ketone smell varies widely by person, just like much of the rest of the symptoms/results of Atkins diet do.

Personally, I brush my teeth (and yes my tongue) at least 3 times a day and since this started on this diet been using the mouthwash probably once an hour! In less than 20 min after a good brush or mouthwash, it's back again. I would characterize it as milk that is just a few days out of date, not really sour, but not quite good either. The taste is very similar to that as well.

I never had this problem prior to being on Atkins, it's definitely related to Atkins and no poor hygiene, at least in my case.

[not2late]

Re: Breath Mints....

There are 3 types of ketone bodies we produce when we metabolize fat: acetone, acetoacetic acid and beta-hydroxybutric acid. The ketone that we breathe out is acetone. Acetone has a "fruity" aroma. (Acetoacetic acid is the ketone body we eliminate in our urine and is the ketone body those ketostix test for. Beta-hydroxybutric acid is also eliminated urine but is not detected by the ketostix.)

http://books.nap.edu/books/0309067952/html/17.html
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/...ticlekey=12478
http://yalenewhavenhealth.org/librar...wid=hn-3567002

When you read the second and third link you'll see that ketosis/ketonuria/ketonemia is associated with dehydration because it causes a diuretic effect. When you become slightly dehydrated, you decrease your saliva production. The following link explains the dehydration-decreased saliva-bad breath connnection.
http://www.dentist.net/bad-breath-cause.asp

This link describes the breath odors and their associated "diseases". Since we produce ketones on Atkins, we fall into the "diabetic" category on the table at the bottom of the page. More correctly, the page should characterize it as diabetic ketoacidosis, but they don't....
http://www.qualitydentistry.com/dent...sis/facts.html

So, drink your water and maintain good oral hygiene to help with the bad breath, especially during Induction because your initial weight loss will be water weight loss, which your body will interpret as acute dehydration and will react accordingly if you do not get the adequate amount of water daily.

[kkat55]

Re: Breath Mints....

How many carbs are in parsley? I hate the taste of parsley. If you try it, make sure there's no green stuff in your teeth when you're talking to the boss. lol

(giggle)

[kkat55]

Re: Breath Mints....

Bumping for someone with questions.

[JTsBlackqueen21]

Re: Breath Mints....

you see, I would want to try some breath mints cuz sometimes *ahem* isn't exactly fresh..but i'll just stick with my mouthwash....

[Ris]

Re: Breath Mints....

I use pure mint and peppermint extract on my water, it has 0 calories. I am too scared to chew gum at work. The mint and peppermint extract works very well, plus it helps me drink more water than i would usually.

[abstractillusions]

Re: Breath Mints....

Just a word of warning for those who live on mouthwash all day, we fired a temp because everytime we walked past her desk it smelled like alcohol. She showed the temp agency she was from the bottle. So make sure your mouthwash doesn't have alcoholy smell under the mint smell.

i also add mint to my water. Today i didn't have any abstract so i added 3 altoids sug free wintergreen to a 2 liter bottle of plain water and it has this fresh taste to it. i drink 2 of these a day which equals 6 altoids. I am going to try the abstract when i can get to buy some instead of using the altoids.