Underarm Odor & Diet

Foods you eat are also released through your pores and sweat glands. It isn't just garlic either--everything you ingest affects the way you smell. A healthy diet creates a healthy body inside and out. Knowing what to consume to smell fresh all of the time adds to your sense of well-being and self-confidence. Does this Spark an idea?

Limit Odor-Producing Foods

It isn't your perspiration that smells--perspiration is odorless--it's bacteria from an imbalance in your metabolism and the toxins released from your diet that cause the bad odors. If you're serious about getting rid of underarm odor, eliminate all meat and meat products in your diet. Meat decays in your body and the toxins released through all of your pores, not just your underarms, stink.

Other animal products that produce bad odors are dairy products like milk and cheese. If you're not interested in cutting out your meat, reduce your meat intake while increasing green vegetables to combat bad underarm odor. Add proteins from plant sources such as soy, nuts and seeds. Cut down on garlic, onions, caffeinated beverages and alcohol, all which produce foul odors.

Eat Your Greens

Eat steamed vegetables or a fresh salad made with dark, leafy greens daily with lunch and dinner. Dark-green vegetables such as spinach, romaine lettuce, collard greens and kale contain chlorophyll, which is what gives leaves and plants their green color. Chlorophyll is the fluid of life for plants. Eat plants high in chlorophyll, a natural internal deodorant, and your body odors will become neutralized.

Wheatgrass is young wheat, sprouted from wheat berries and is 70 percent chlorophyll. Find wheatgrass juice at a juice bar, in health-food stores or juice it yourself at home to drink. Sprout your own wheatgrass for juicing or for food. Take 500 mg daily of wheatgrass in tablet or capsule form on an empty stomach. Your underarm odor will soon be significantly reduced or eliminated all together.

Add parsley, such as Italian parsley, to your diet. Parsley has more uses than just a pretty food garnish--it's a vegetable with several vitamins, minerals and plenty of chlorophyll. Make a delicious salad using Italian parsley as your main salad green. Sprinkle Italian or curly parsley in your soups. Not only will your breath stay fresh for hours, the chlorophyll in the parsley will keep your body and underarms odor free.

Drink Sage Tea

Drink a cup of herb tea made with sage daily. Sage tea reduces the activity of your sweat glands, perfect if you perspire excessively. Add 2 1/2 tbsp. of fresh or dried sage to 1 1/2 pints of boiling water. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and steep for 15 minutes. Strain and add honey or the sweetener of your choice. Keep the rest refrigerated and reheat the amount you need. Buy sage tea bags also at a health-food store or online.

Chlorophyll Supplements

In addition to adding more green vegetables to your diet, take chlorophyll supplements daily, which come in tablet, powder, capsule and liquid form, if you want to increase your underarm odor protection even more. Buy them at a health-food store or online.

Tips & Warnings

Do not eat parsley if you're pregnant. Parsley causes the uterus to contract. Be aware that eating parsley stimulates menstrual flow.

Avoid parsley and chlorophyll supplements if you're taking blood thinners as the vitamin K, which thickens the blood, is high.

Quit or cut down on smoking cigarettes. Tobacco creates a stench that comes through your pores, including your underarms.

Eliminate refined, white sugar from your diet. Sugar feeds fungus and bacteria on your skin.

Be careful when using liquid chlorophyll--it easily stains countertops and clothing dark green.