There's nothing like a strong garlic smell wafting from the kitchen to set your mouth watering. But when your sweat, skin, or breath smells like garlic? Well, that's a different story.
Contrary to popular belief, sweat is actually odorless. Instead, that unpleasant body odor (BO) you might experience occurs when sweat and body oils interact with bacteria or sulfur compounds on the skin.
Sometimes, this odor can smell like garlic. And this often happens as a side effect of certain foods in your diet or medication that you’re taking. In rare instances, though, a garlic odor may be a sign of an underlying health condition. Here’s a list of the five most common causes.
1. Alliums in Your Diet
Foods in the allium family, including onions, leeks, garlic, and chives, contain pungent sulfur compounds that can be released through the skin's pores. When you consume these types of foods often, side effects may include changes in breath and body odor. The smell is more noticeable if you’ve eaten raw garlic. Not to mention, if you’re handling these foods — such as during cooking — they can also cause a pungent garlicky smell on your hands and fingers.
Fix It
The smell of garlic may be strong when you eat something or cook with an ingredient in the allium family. Don’t fret! The smell clears up on its own quickly and shouldn’t last more than a couple of days.
2. Spices in Your Kitchen Cabinet
It may not be surprising that eating garlic can make you smell, well, garlicky, but if you haven't eaten any alliums lately (or any more than usual), you might want to check your spice cabinet. When spices like curry and cumin attach to your tongue or mix with your skin, your body breaks them down into sulfur-like compounds. And as a result, a garlicky smell can affect your breath or cause a sour body odor.
Fix It
After you eat a large amount of these spices, it may take a couple of days for the scent to completely disappear. And while you don’t have to avoid these spices completely, smaller doses may prevent that garlicky smell from coming back.
3. Certain Medications and Supplements
Certain sulfur-based medications may also contribute to sour-smelling body odor or breath. Among these are dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which treats some bladder conditions, and disulfiram (Antabuse), which treats substance use disorders. Side effects of both these medications can cause a garlicky body odor or a rotten egg smell, which can last up to 72 hours.
Fix It
If your medication may be contributing to your garlic breath or BO, and it’s bothersome to you, chat with your healthcare provider about your concerns. They may be able to prescribe alternative medications or offer other treatment options to keep the garlic smell at bay.
4. Emotional Stress
Stress-induced sweat is different from the sweat you produce when you're hot or working out. Anxiety or emotional stress can often trigger your body to produce an oily sweat, which can then mix with sulfur-producing bacteria on your skin, causing your armpits to smell like garlic.
Fix It
You can manage sweat caused by stress in several ways. The first way is to target the cause of your stress. Practice stress management strategies like journaling, meditation, or talking to a mental health professional to reduce stress. If that still doesn’t help your garlicky BO go away on its own, consider washing your arms with antibacterial soap, using antiperspirant on your pits, or asking your healthcare provider about medications that can reduce the sweating.
5. Liver Disease
In rare cases, garlic breath or BO, especially when you haven’t been eating alliums or taking sulfur-containing medications, can be a sign of an underlying health condition. One condition that may cause the garlicky scent is liver disease.
But the BO and foul-smelling breath aren’t usually the only symptoms. While early stages of liver disease don’t always cause symptoms, later stages of liver disease may lead to symptoms like yellow-tinted skin and eyes, abdominal pain, swelling in the legs, dark-colored urine, easy bruising, and nausea or vomiting.
Fix It
If you have any of the above symptoms, have a history of liver problems, or may be at a higher risk of developing liver disease, it’s important to make an appointment with your healthcare provider right away to get tested and discuss treatment options if necessary.
The Takeaway
When your sweat or body oils come into contact with bacteria or sulfur compounds on your skin, a garlicky body odor or breath may develop.
Eating foods like onions and garlic, adding spices like curry or cumin to your dishes, or taking sulfur-based medications are the most common causes of garlic-smelling breath and body odor.
But in some cases, emotional stress and liver disease can also contribute to the scent, which may require additional remedies like lifestyle strategies to reduce stress and talking to a healthcare provider for treatment options for liver disease.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Allison Buttarazzi, MD, is board-certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine, and is a certified health and well-being coach. In her primary care practice, Dr. Buttarazzi focuses on lifestyle medicine to help her patients improve their health and longevity, and her passion is helping patients prevent and reverse chronic diseases (like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes) by improving their lifestyle habits.
She is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and completed a residency at Maine Medical Center. Diagnosed with celiac disease during medical school, she realized the power of improving one's health through diet and lifestyle habits, which she later incorporated into her practice.
Juniper Russo is a freelance writer and wildlife rehabilitation specialist based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She has been writing professionally since 2008 on topics including animal wellness, health, and evidence-based natural approaches to care. Russo founded and operates For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue, a nonprofit specializing in rehabilitating rabies vector species.
