Stay away from garlic and other high-spiced foods. High-spiced foods tend to last longer on your breath. Some of these foods can last for up to twenty-four hours after you have eaten them no matter how much you brush. Foods that can cause your breath to stink include onions, hot peppers, and garlic.

Spicy meats should also be a pariah when trying to get rid of bad breath. Deli meats such as pastrami, salami, and pepperoni should not be eaten before socializing. These meats leave behind oils long after they have been swallowed causing you to have bad breath.

Certain cheeses should also be avoided. Cheeses that you should stay away from are Camembert, Roquefort, and blue cheese. These cheeses are called strong for a reason. To be on the safe side – stay away from other dairy products before a big date or job interview. Other dairy products may have the same effect on your breath.

Fish like anchovies and tuna are also culprits. If you must eat them – eat them when you have at least eight hours before talking to someone’s face.

Water is very important in combating bad breath. Instead of drinking coffee just before a big meeting, try water. Other liquids you should avoid include beer, wine, and whiskey. These liquids leave a deposit that attaches to the plaque in your mouth and permeate the digestive system. Therefore, causing every breath you take to emit traces of the digested drink back into the air. Water “as simple as it may sound” is one of the greatest home remedies for bad breath.

Brushing right after a meal can also help with the elimination of most odors. According to experts, a soft, sticky film of living and dead bacteria that clings to the teeth and gums causes bad breath. The sticky film mentioned earlier is what we all know as plaque. To make it worse – we now know that there can be up to fifty-trillion of these microscopic organisms littering our mouths. Every single morsel of food that passes our lips is a potential meal to these little critters. That is why it is so important to brush your teeth before you go to bed. They hide in every little pocket and corner of our mouths collecting smells and producing odors of their own. Therefore, brushing after every meal can significantly limit your breath problems. Therefore, brushing alone is another one of the most effective home remedies to treat bad breath.

Rinsing out your mouth is also a great way to relieve bad odors. If you cannot brush, then rinsing is also good. After a meal, rinse out your mouth, this rinses particles of out of little nooks and crannies that your tongue cannot get at.

Carrying a small minty mouthwash with you can be very effective. Gargling with a minty mouthwash right after a meal can give you a good twenty to thirty minutes of fresh breath. The only drawback to this idea is that it does not last forever. Therefore, use it only when you need your breath fresh for a quick meeting after lunch. Otherwise, find some way to brush your teeth.

- Most people overlook this part of maintaining and keeping fresh breath. This mostly overlooked phenomenon is the brushing of your tongue. Yep! Most people when they brush their teeth they do not brush their tongues. The human tongue when looked at under a microscope resembles a forest of mushrooms. All types of bacteria, plaque, and the things we eat become trapped under caps of these ‘mushrooms’. This as we know it will cause bad breath. Therefore, the next time you brush your teeth, remember to brush your tongue.

- With everything already said, let us not forget one of the oldest remedy for bad breath, which is chewing a stick of gum. However, like a minty mouth wash this only lasts but so long. If you have a short interview or a quick car ride with carpoolers, a stick of gum is just what the doctor ordered.

- Choose mouthwashes that contain essential oils like thyme, eucalyptus, peppermint, and wintergreen, as well as sodium benzoate or benzoic acid. These essential oils neutralize the odor that the bacterium produces.