By Dr. Ron Schefdore

Burning fat and losing inches may look great but did you know that it produces a bad breath due to a process called ketosis? If you’ve lost, or are losing, weight on a low-carbohydrate diet there are some homecare products that will help, so you can keep your friends close.

The ketogenic (keto) diet, and other low carb diets, are causing halitosis to plague people across the nation. The problem is that the bad breath, caused by the way the body metabolizes food, is actually a sign that the diet is working.
The body normally converts glucose for energy, but in a low-carb diet, the body uses your fat to create energy. In the process, it produces keto acids, which are released through urine and the breath. A telltale sign of ketone breath is a sickly-sweet odor. But what really makes “keto breath” offensive is that 60% of Americans have gum disease.

When gum disease is combined with ketones from a low carb diet, the effect can be similar to rotten eggs. It’s very pungent. When you combine this with gum disease, it’s atrocious. Although improving oral hygiene can help a normal halitosis patient, ketone breath is much harder to eliminate.

With ketosis, even with good oral hygiene, the odor won’t go away by itself. Some solutions include drinking large amounts of water to flush the keto acids from the body or chewing fresh parsley. I discourage the use of most breath mints because they may contain sugar or artificial sweeteners and simply mask bad breath for a brief period of time.

A better way we found to control bad breath….

Get regular, professional cleanings and thorough checkups at your dentist’s office. In addition, use Closys toothpaste and their gentle oral rinse that is available online and at drugstores. It breaks down the chemical bonds that cause bad breath from the bacteria in the mouth – instead of covering it up like most other products on the market do. Also, if your gums do not get specific nutrients from your diet they will bleed regardless of how much you brush and floss. Problem is, keto diets restrict the amount of nutrient rich foods (like fruits and vegetables) a person can eat. Pharmaden products are high-absorbing supplements designed by dentists for their patients who are not getting enough of the essential nutrients in their diet. Pharmaden has the only vitamin with a double-blind university study showing a reduction of bleeding gums, pocket depth, and plaque.