Personally, I love shoveling piles and piles of garlic into anything I cook because it’s basically the ingredient of the gods — aromatic and tasty, it makes any dish taste better. I know plenty of other people out there share that love, but there’s another thing garlic lovers share: A hatred of the resulting deathbreath that makes you want to never speak to another human again for fear of killing them with a whiff of it. So how can something so tasty cause such a stink?

Beyond the culinary world, health experts have also long touted the benefits of garlic for things like helping high blood pressure and heart disease. If it’s so good for you, why does it turn into a stink bomb in your mouth?

According to a new video from the American Chemical Society’s Compound Interest blog (via Time.com) it can be chalked up to four major organic compounds that are only found in garlic when it’s chopped or crushed: diallyl disulfide, allyl methyl sulfide, allyl mercaptan and allyl methyl disulfide.

Allyl methyl sulfide is the worst of the bunch, as it takes a long time to break down in your body after you’ve chowed on garlic. Brushing your teeth won’t help and neither will rinsing out your mouth, that’s how pungent it is.

You can try to combat the smell of death breath by chewing on parsley or guzzling a glass of milk, the ACS suggests. Or do what I do, which is refuse to have contact with other humans until there are no more odors emanating from my mouth.

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