Fruit-flavored yogurt may also work, but no matter which type of yogurt, you must drink it immediately after eating raw garlic.

According to a report in Molecules on the 19th, researchers at Ohio State University in the United States have discovered that yogurt may have a previously unknown benefit: eliminating the smell of garlic.

Researchers tested individual ingredients such as water, fat and protein in whole-milk yogurt to see how well each combated the garlic smell. It turns out that both fat and protein are effective at capturing garlic odor.

Cheryl Ballinger, senior author of the study and a professor of food science and technology at The Ohio State University, said that in addition to being nutritious, high protein can also act as a breath deodorant.

Previously, Ballinger's team identified a number of foods that neutralize the smell of garlic, including apples, mint, lettuce and milk, thanks to the enzymes and fats they contain that "kill" the sulfur radicals responsible for garlic's persistent odor. compound.

In this experiment, the researchers put an equal amount of raw garlic into a glass bottle and confirmed that the sulfur volatiles released reached a concentration that can be smelled by humans. They used a mass spectrometer to measure the levels of volatile molecules present in the form of gases before and after each treatment and showed that yogurt alone reduced raw garlic odor volatiles by 99%. The fat, water and protein components in yogurt also have a deodorizing effect on raw garlic when added separately, but fat and protein perform better than water.

In terms of fat, the higher the butter content, the better the deodorizing effect. The proteins studied included different forms of whey, casein and milk proteins, all of which are effective at removing garlic odor, likely due to their ability to capture volatile molecules before they are emitted into the air. Micellar casein-whey protein complex works best.

The researchers also tested the deodorizing effect of yogurt and its isolated components on fried garlic. They found that frying garlic alone significantly reduced most of the odor-causing volatile compounds in the garlic.

Ballinger predicts that Greek yogurt, which has a higher protein content than the plain milk yogurt used in the study, may be particularly effective at eliminating garlic odor. She said fruit-flavored yogurt may also be effective, but no matter which type of yogurt it is, it must be consumed immediately after eating raw garlic.