Alright everyone this article is on keto breath and it's important that you understand what's really happening in the world of ketosis and what gives you keto breath in the first place.
Because it’s not necessarily a bad thing it's easy to get rid of if you pay attention to this article all right.
So to understand keto breath, we have to understand ketosis really quick so I'm gonna break it down quick for you here just bear with me.
Alright so ketosis is when you are in the absence of carbohydrates you have no glucose no carbohydrates and your body is forced to run on these molecules called ketones. These ketones provide energy from fat.
Now let's get down to how this actually pertains when it comes to keto breath:
So you have three main ketone bodies that your body is utilizing they are beta hydroxy butyrate, acetoacetate and you have acetone yeah as in the nail polish remover acetone, but acetone isn't bad it's created in the body and it's only bad in crazy high amounts so don't go thinking that ketosis is bad just because acetone.
Acetone is a byproduct of fat metabolism in general so any animal consuming any fat is going to have a level of acetone in their body at some point or another and it doesn't matter.
Now these ketones including acetone are removed via two ways through the breath or the urine.
Let's break down acetone a little bit more so you have a solid understanding of what's happening here:
Acetone is a colorless volatile, flammable organic solvent liquid used as a solvent and an antiseptic.
Occurs naturally in plants/trees, forest fires, vehicle exhaust and as a breakdown product of animal fat metabolism and is excreted both in the urine and the breath.
So acetone in short is what is giving you the bad breath in ketosis, whenever we have any kind of fat metabolism and we absorb it through the lungs, we absorb it through the stomach and sometimes in small amounts we can absorb it through the skin.
So yeah side note if you're using a lot of nail polish remover and you're getting it on your skin. But again it's really not dangerous unless it seemed crazy high amounts.
So then what happens?
Acetone flows through the bloodstream it goes to the liver and the liver breaks it down to a series of chemical compounds ultimately creating glue in one way or another so basically that's how ketosis works your body generating energy from this acetone.
So in short keto breath is just the presence of these ketone bodies and not really a bad thing when you think about it so if you have ketones because you're in ketosis you have them floating around in your blood stream and the acetone is going to come out through your breath that's plain and simple.
I want to give you three solutions for it, three easy ways to combat the keto breath and I'm going to break them down a little bit more so you have a solid understanding of why they work and what's really happening.
Increase water intake:
Drink a lot more water and again it might sound vague but I want to explain why because it's not just about flushing out your system. Remember how I told you that acetone is going to excreted through the breath or through the urine well here's the thing if you consume enough water it's going to opt to be excreted through the urine therefore you're not going to have as much in the way of keto breath.
Super super simple nothing to it other than to hydrate up a little bit more you're naturally dehydrated when you're in ketosis anyway because you're not retaining water in many ways so you're naturally going to have bad breath from two reasons one because the ketones are going to be escaping through your breath but also halitosis is going to come in just because your mouth is dry so hydrate up wash them out through the urine.
Peppermint Oil:
Next one is going to be a simple one peppermint oil just swish around a little bit of peppermint oil in your mouth it works way better than the mouthwashes and at least
combat the superficial issue of having the ketosis breath, but remember it's not
going to solve the problem because we're not dealing with a bad breath issue we are dealing with a chemical reaction in the body and byproduct of fat metabolism. And sugar/calorie free gum and mints Can help to cover the smell, need to be mindful of the carbs.
Patience:
Okay and I've got a bonus one for you after this but patience is critical here's what's happening and why you have keto breath .
You have keto breath because you're not fully fat adapted yet if you've ever used a ketose strip where you urinate on a strip to see what level of ketosis you're in.
Well that's measuring your excess levels of ketones excess you don't need excess.
If you have excess levels of ketones they are going to try to escape they're not just going to sit in your body.
And simply sitting in your body you'd go into ketoacidosis and end up really in the hospital and feeling sick so your body's excreting them. It's doing what it's supposed to do but you want to get yourself to a point where your keto adapted and your body is utilizing every component of ketone bodies that it can.
So you don't have this keto breath and excess ketones in your urine.
Newsflash if you've been in ketosis awhile and if you test it on the strip you've probably found that they don't really register your ketone levels anymore after a while why?
Because your keto adapted so we do want to make sure that you're giving it some time that breath will go away but that leads me to my next solution that kind of encompasses all of it.
Take care of you fats intake:
Utilize your fats better, ketones are a byproduct of fat metabolism if you have too much fat coming in you will have excess ketones so therefore you may need to decrease your fat a little bit until your keto adapted; if you're really battling with the bad breath and this is the simplest way to do it.
The other thing you can do is increase your low intensity cardio just a tiny bit you see the low intensity cardio utilizes beta-oxidation.
And beta-oxidation is where you're using fat as a source of fuel like with low intensity cardio therefore you're going to burn up a few more of those ketone bodies.
CONCLUSION:
So in short don't freak out about it it's not a bad thing it actually means your body's working and it means that ketosis is kicking in so don't be steered away by the fact that you have a fruity nail polish remover smell coming out of your mouth.
• Just eat a little less fat.
• Do a little more cardio.
• Gargle with some peppermint oil.
• Hydrate the heck up.
I hope that this debunks the common myth that keto breath is bad and means that ketosis isn't working because I'm tired of hearing that it's quite the opposite it means ketosis is working you.
I will talk to you in the next article make sure you comment what article you want to see especially in the world of ketosis, fasting and anything that we can capitalize on feeling our best and optimizing our brains our bodies.
Keep locked in on my blog and share this article and if you haven't already click on that follow button just so that you can make sure you never miss any of my articles. I'll see you soon. Cheers