anyone else lost their sense of taste?

neverend

Hi all, I've been on here for about a year now and stalled about half way through. I haven't put weight back on, but finding it hard work to lose any more. Right before Christmas I developed a taste disturbance as a side effect of some medication I was taking and now a lot of things taste really horrible. Chocolate, bread, potatoes, quorn, alcohol etc.

It's weird, because since I'm changing my eating habits anyway, perhaps I should see this as a good thing, but it's actually quite hard. I can't eat any of the usual meals I've been eating, and have no idea what things are going to taste like until i try them, but don't want to waste food, time and money cooking things I can't eat. I'm not sure that my taste will every return to normal, and as it is I'm yet to find any meals other than plain salad and boiled eggs that I can stand... I don't want the rest of my life to be like this. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

It's taught me a few things, first how much I think about food. All through the day I hear myself saying, I'll just have a little treat. usually I try to fight these feelings, but now I am just reminded that I'm not going to enjoy it even if I did eat it. I'm now wondering if I have anything else that I enjoy as much, there seems to be very few activities that I think about and look forward to the way I do with food.

Second, just how much of our social lives is filled with food, how much our telling other people we care about them is based on pressing more food onto them. I had to keep saying no to everyone all over Christmas, and everyone would still constantly forget that I wouldn't enjoy anything that was offered.

It's definitely an eye opening experience..

Ainar

Once I stopped putting ****loads of salt, sugar, ketchup and other unhealthy spices on my foods at first they tasted boring and not so good. Now it just feel that if I add those things it ruins the taste. Also as I stopped eating some unhealthy foods now they don't taste as good anymore. So yea, I guess it kinda happened with me too. A lot of unhealthy stuff doesn't taste so good anymore. Not that disgusting that I can not get them in my mouth. I can still ate them. But I'm not that crazy about taste of those foods anymore. They were SOOOOO DELICIOUS! I could ate tons of them. But now I'm just wondering, what was that I found so tasty there, they are pretty average. I don't think it's a bad thing tho. I actually like that cos I don't crave those foods anymore, so it's easier to control myself. I also can enjoy a taste of clean foods like potatoes or fruits more without unnecessary spices added. And since I stopped adding sugar and cream to tea I discovered the rainbows of taste in different tease. So I love it.

It's sad that you don't like it. Why would you wanna like foods that are not good for you? There are a lot of things that taste like salad and boiled eggs. Mostly if they contain salad or boiled eggs, lol. But you can look up recipes online. If you do it you will also find a lot of foods you like apart from salad and eggs, just have to look. I'm sure of it. ^^

It's sad how all the attention is around food in people lives. It's like a main thing of many social events. We give somebody food when we apologize, wanna say we like them, wanna make them feel better, wanna just have a chat and fun, etc. Like saying it would not be enough. Or like just spending a time with friends and talking would not be enough. I think it's very silly and primitive. This developed thousands of years ago when we were just animals living in calves like a way to shove emotions such as love. Cos food was abundant resource then and sharing it would mean that we care about with who we share it. Like a dog that kills a squirrel and brings it to your feet.

What would be good to do is to condition your mind to enjoy socializing without food. And you can do it by simply not eating while you are doing it. And focus on things like conversations or just being with your friends. With time you will forget about food.
And with time your friends will start to remember that you don't want it.

neverend

Hey, thanks for getting back to me. Yes I've noticed that some of my tastes have changed naturally as I've changed my eating habits. I've particularly noticed that I can't (and don't want to) eat as large portions as I used to, and that's a big plus. I guess the issue here is that it feels like I've landed on a foreign planet where I have no idea what I can eat.. Lots of healthy things taste off too - particularly fruit, but also some beans and nuts, my usual cereals etc.

I've read that my sense of taste should restore itself in about 6-8 weeks, and some people have it so bad that they can't eat anything and can barely drink water, so I'm very thankful that I don't have it as bad as this. I suppose I should see it as a good way to gain more insights into my relationship with food..

Lizzy622

I had a similar thing happen with medication and everything tasted metallic. It went away when I got off the medicine (took about a week).

neverend

Good to hear. Two weeks for me now and no change yet, but seems like I'll need to wait another 3-4 weeks at least anyway. Thanks for getting back to me.