Any other users with Anosmia? What tricks do you use?

ajwindsorii

I was born with anosmia. For those that don't know, anosmia means you lack a sense of smell. Due to this, I have a blunted ability to taste. I can still taste big things like sweet, salty, sour, bitter, etc. And I can tell the difference between noticeably large flavors like between chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

But something like seasonings? I can't taste seasonings (unless it's salty or something like that). An expensive cut of meat vs a cheap cut of meat tastes the exact same to me. Rare vs well done? I can only tell if one is noticeably juicier or more dry. And for beer, if it's not a cider, I can't do it.

Does anyone else suffer from the same problem? How do you work around this? What useful advice or tips do you have?

steveko89

I can't necessarily offer any tips but I have some undiagnosed form of anosmia as well. In my case I can't smell certain things; the most notable being skunk. I've never had any kind of diagnosis but I definitely can't smell skunks and firmly believe it impacts the way I register other smells, especially artificial ones like scented candles or air fresheners. Most people have never heard of anosmia and just look at me weird if I talk about it.

As it pertains to food, I've noticed there are a few select things that I find I'm overly sensitive to the smell of, almost as a compensation, perhaps? Namely, canned tuna and cottage cheese will immediately turn my stomach so I avoid them as much as possible.