Why You Have Heinous Bad Breath After Eating Dairy—and How to Fix It

Milk breath. Cheese mouth. The sour stench of worst-date nightmares. What the heck is this foul demon odor and how does one exorcise it?

First, you have to understand your enemy.

You probably don’t think about your mouth this way, but it’s technically part of your digestive tract. Chewing is only the first step of digestion.

“Imagine millions of bacteria feasting on particles of food and tissue in our mouth, some giving off smelly waste,” says David Krol, M.D., former chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Oral Health.