If you’ve ever skipped the garlic for fear of romantic rejection, take note: You can have your date and eat garlic — provided you follow up with a spoonful of yoghurt. Research suggests that the fat and protein that yoghurt contains prevents almost all of the smelly volatile compounds in garlic from escaping into the air.
Manpreet Kaur and Sheryl Barringer at the Ohio State University in Columbus, US, tested the capacity of yoghurt — and the water, fat and protein in it — to neutralize the sulfurous compounds that give raw and cooked garlic its characteristic odor.
Their results, published in the journal Molecules, suggested yoghurt alone reduced 99 percent of the most odor-producing volatiles in raw garlic. The individual fat, water and protein components also had a neutralizing effect, but fat and protein were more effective than water, and higher-fat yoghurt was better than lower-fat yoghurt.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung City Government
Previous research has suggested that drinking whole milk can also help to get rid of garlic breath, because the fats it contains bind to several of the smelly molecules. Barringer said the proteins in yoghurt may also serve to trap volatile molecules before they are emitted into the air.
“We know proteins bind flavor — a lot of times, that’s considered a negative, especially if a food with high protein has less flavor. In this case, it could be a positive,” she said.
She predicted that Greek yoghurt, which has a higher protein profile than the yoghurt used in the study, may be particularly effective. Fruit-flavored yoghurts will also probably work — but whatever is used, it must be consumed as soon as possible after the garlic.
Their experiments also revealed that frying garlic significantly reduces the amount of smelly volatiles it releases. Separate research by Barringer has suggested that eating raw apple, mint or lettuce immediately after consuming garlic may also help to deodorize the breath.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the country’s other political groups dare not offend religious groups, says Chen Lih-ming (陳立民), founder of the Taiwan Anti-Religion Alliance (台灣反宗教者聯盟). “It’s the same in other democracies, of course, but because political struggles in Taiwan are extraordinarily fierce, you’ll see candidates visiting several temples each day ahead of elections. That adds impetus to religion here,” says the retired college lecturer. In Japan’s most recent election, the Liberal Democratic Party lost many votes because of its ties to the Unification Church (“the Moonies”). Chen contrasts the progress made by anti-religion movements in
Taiwan doesn’t have a lot of railways, but its network has plenty of history. The government-owned entity that last year became the Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) has been operating trains since 1891. During the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, the colonial government made huge investments in rail infrastructure. The northern port city of Keelung was connected to Kaohsiung in the south. New lines appeared in Pingtung, Yilan and the Hualien-Taitung region. Railway enthusiasts exploring Taiwan will find plenty to amuse themselves. Taipei will soon gain its second rail-themed museum. Elsewhere there’s a number of endearing branch lines and rolling-stock collections, some
Last week the State Department made several small changes to its Web information on Taiwan. First, it removed a statement saying that the US “does not support Taiwan independence.” The current statement now reads: “We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” In 2022 the administration of Joe Biden also removed that verbiage, but after a month of pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reinstated it. The American
This was not supposed to be an election year. The local media is billing it as the “2025 great recall era” (2025大罷免時代) or the “2025 great recall wave” (2025大罷免潮), with many now just shortening it to “great recall.” As of this writing the number of campaigns that have submitted the requisite one percent of eligible voters signatures in legislative districts is 51 — 35 targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus lawmakers and 16 targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The pan-green side has more as they started earlier. Many recall campaigns are billing themselves as “Winter Bluebirds” after the “Bluebird Action”
RSS