Israeli study reveals coffee can fight bad breath

June 29, 7:28 AMCoffee ExaminerMary Ann Lien

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Julia Freeman-Woolpert

Coffee breath is a term commonly used with a negative connotation. Many articles have been written warning that the acidic nature of coffee creates an oral environment that fosters the growth of odor causing bacteria, and Professor Mel Rosenberg, a breath specialist at Tel Aviv University, set out to prove just that.

To Professor Rosenberg’s surprise, the opposite proved true. In laboratory tests at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, the researchers monitored the effect of malodorous bacteria in saliva using extracts of three brands of coffee: Elite coffee (an Israeli brand), Landwer Turkish coffee, and Taster’s Choice (American). Expecting the in vitro evaluation to prove that coffee increases malodorous bacteria effects, they instead found that all three extracts inhibited odor causing bacteria.

This study did not identify exactly what compounds are responsible for the beneficial effects, but Professor Rosenberg expects that further study may isolate the active ingredient, and this may lead to a new class of breath remedies that prevent bad breath from occurring rather than masking it once it exists.
 

Jochem Aarts

Though the research is new, the benefits have been enjoyed for centuries. Five hundred years ago coffeehouses were popular in the Middle East, where men gathered after work and after dinner to sip coffee, enjoy music, conversation, and serious debate. In many cultures coffee has long been an after dinner tradition, and some have held that sucking on coffee beans freshened the breath and countered the effects of food containing such breath-impacting ingredients as onion and garlic.