How long does it take for garlic to pass through your system?

November 24, 2025 •

4 min read

According to research, the persistent malodorous sulfur compounds responsible for 'garlic breath' can linger for as long as 24 hours after consumption. Understanding how long it takes for garlic to pass through your system depends on how your body processes its various components, not just the initial digestion.

Quick Summary

Garlic's digestion and elimination timeline varies based on its components. While most is processed in 24 hours, fat-soluble compounds can remain for weeks, influencing breath and body odor. Factors like cooking method and metabolism affect its duration in the body.

Key Points

Variable Timeline: Water-soluble garlic compounds typically pass within 1-3 days, while fat-soluble compounds can be stored and released over several weeks.
Digestion and Absorption: After consumption, garlic's compounds are absorbed into the bloodstream, where they travel to the lungs and skin for elimination, causing breath and body odor.
Cooking Matters: Eating raw, crushed garlic creates more allicin, which leads to more potent and long-lasting sulfur compounds compared to cooked garlic.
Odor Causes: Volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), especially allyl methyl sulfide (AMS), are responsible for the lingering garlic odor on breath and sweat.
Factors Influencing Duration: The amount of garlic consumed, individual metabolism, and the preparation method all affect how long garlic remains in your system.
Odor Neutralization: Certain foods like apples, mint, and milk can help neutralize or mask the volatile sulfur compounds that cause bad breath.

The Journey of Garlic Through Your Body

When you consume garlic, you are ingesting a complex mix of compounds, primarily organosulfur compounds like alliin, which becomes allicin when crushed. Allicin is highly unstable and quickly breaks down into other volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs). These different compounds are processed by the body in distinct ways and at different speeds, which is why the effects of eating garlic are not uniform.

The Role of Allicin and Sulfur Compounds

The most notorious side effects of garlic consumption, such as bad breath and body odor, are primarily caused by these sulfur compounds. After being absorbed into the bloodstream during digestion, they are transported throughout the body and released through your breath (via the lungs) and sweat (via the skin). One specific compound, allyl methyl sulfide (AMS), is particularly resistant to rapid breakdown and can persist for an extended period.

How Cooking Affects Digestion Time

The way garlic is prepared significantly impacts the compounds released and, consequently, their journey through your system. Thermal processing, such as roasting or cooking, can inactivate the alliinase enzyme, which reduces the amount of allicin formed and breaks down other organosulfur compounds. This often results in a less potent and more quickly processed garlic, reducing the intensity and duration of its odor.

Water-Soluble vs. Fat-Soluble Compounds

Garlic contains both water-soluble and fat-soluble compounds, each with a different metabolic and elimination timeline. This is a critical distinction for understanding how long garlic stays in your system.

Water-Soluble Compounds: These are absorbed and processed relatively quickly. Studies suggest they are flushed out of the body within 1-3 days. The kidneys filter these compounds, and they are excreted through urine.
Fat-Soluble Compounds: These compounds, like diallyl disulfide (DADS), are more persistent. They can be stored in the body's fatty tissues and released slowly over multiple weeks. This explains why body odor from eating a large amount of garlic can linger for so long, even after breath odor has subsided.

A Comparison of Garlic Compound Duration


Compound Type	Source	Absorption Speed	Elimination Pathway	Duration	Key Characteristics
Allicin	Formed when raw garlic is crushed.	Extremely rapid breakdown; not detected in system after 24 hrs.	Metabolized into VSCs and other compounds.	Very short (minutes)	Unstable; the source of the initial strong odor.
Allyl Methyl Sulfide (AMS)	A metabolite of allicin.	Absorbed rapidly.	Excreted via breath, lungs, and urine.	Hours to 24+ hours.	Responsible for persistent garlic breath and body odor.
Water-Soluble Compounds	Various breakdown products.	Relatively fast.	Filtered by kidneys and excreted in urine.	1-3 days.	Processed and eliminated similar to other water-soluble nutrients.
Fat-Soluble Compounds	Various breakdown products, including DADS.	Slower absorption and processing.	Stored in fat cells and slowly released.	Up to several weeks.	Causes long-lasting body odor.

Influencing Factors on Elimination Speed

Several factors can influence how long garlic and its byproducts remain in your system:

Amount Consumed: A larger quantity of garlic will produce more sulfur compounds, requiring more time for the body to process and eliminate them.
Raw vs. Cooked: Raw, crushed garlic produces more allicin, leading to a higher concentration of VSCs. Cooking reduces the allicin content, resulting in a milder effect.
Metabolism: Individual metabolic rates play a significant role. People with faster metabolisms may process and eliminate the compounds more quickly.
Digestive Health: A healthy digestive system can process food more efficiently. For individuals with conditions like IBS, garlic's fructan content may cause digestive distress and bloating.

How to Manage Lingering Effects

While you cannot speed up the core metabolic process, you can take steps to manage or mask the odor. Eating certain foods can help neutralize the volatile compounds.

Eat with neutralizing foods: Chewing on raw mint leaves, apples, or lettuce immediately after eating can help. The enzymes and phenolic compounds in these foods help break down the odor-causing sulfur compounds.
Drink milk: A study showed that drinking milk can help reduce garlic breath, with higher fat milk proving more effective.
Stay hydrated: Drinking plenty of water can help flush water-soluble compounds from your system more efficiently.

Conclusion

In summary, the question of how long garlic stays in your system has a complex answer. The initial digestion and breakdown of allicin happen relatively quickly, but its byproducts, particularly fat-soluble compounds and the volatile sulfur compound AMS, can linger in the bloodstream, lungs, and fat tissues for days or even weeks. Factors like quantity, preparation method, and individual biology all play a role. While you can't force the process to speed up, consuming neutralizing foods can help manage the noticeable side effects like breath and body odor.

To learn more about the chemical properties of garlic and its health benefits, you can explore the Linus Pauling Institute's resource on garlic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Brushing your teeth only addresses the odor-causing compounds in your mouth. The volatile sulfur compounds responsible for garlic breath enter your bloodstream through digestion and are then released via your lungs, making it impossible to eliminate with just oral hygiene.

You cannot significantly speed up your body's metabolic process, but you can manage the effects. Eating neutralizing foods like apples, lettuce, and mint can help break down some of the odor-causing compounds. Staying hydrated can also support your body's elimination pathways.

Yes, it does. Volatile sulfur compounds from garlic are absorbed into the bloodstream and are released not only through your breath but also through your pores via sweat glands, which can cause a persistent body odor.

Cooking inactivates the alliinase enzyme, which prevents the maximum formation of allicin. This reduces the concentration of volatile sulfur compounds, resulting in a less intense and shorter-lived effect on breath and body odor compared to raw garlic.

While the overall digestion of the bulb is similar, the processing of its compounds differs. Raw garlic yields higher levels of odor-causing volatile compounds that can take longer to fully process, while cooked garlic’s milder compounds are often eliminated more quickly.

Garlic is high in fructans, a type of carbohydrate that can be difficult for some people, especially those with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), to digest. This can lead to bloating, gas, and stomach discomfort.

No, there is no evidence to suggest that the accumulation of these compounds is harmful. They are simply released over time, which is why garlic's lingering effects, particularly body odor, can persist for a longer period.