# Sick with the flu = taste changes?



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

I've noticed that when I get a cold, my taste sensitivity goes down. In fact I typically stop eating altogether when I'm sick. I can go 2-3 days without eating a thing. I'm just unable to eat. Ok that's one thing.

But here's the weird part: when I'm sick, even though the sensitivity goes down, I can still taste, only the WRONG flavors. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/eek.gif

An example would be this simple lentil salad with red onion and tomatoes, simple vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, S & P. I take a spoonfull: wow, that tastes like fish!! Ok nothing so surprising, I'm sick, my taste must be off as usual, or maybe I'm just imagining things. The next day, I completely forgot. I eat the lentil salad again. Fish taste! So weird. I asked my wife, she says it doesn't taste like fish at all.

I had already noticed that when I've been sick before. My wife has never had that happen to her.

Have you ever noticed it for yourself?

PS: Just opened a bottle of german lager and it tastes really sweet and odd, not the taste I'm used to. No, no, it doesn't taste like kangaroo meat either, it just... taste weird, and it almost feels like it's thicker than usual, and clinging to my tongue and palate.. weird.

Almost like my tastebuds are on LSD or something.


----------



## cuts and scraps (Oct 7, 2013)

I know exactly what you mean. So much of our sense of taste is affected by our sense of smell. When I am sick it affects my cooking by making me over-season because I can't taste what I am doing. I do hate the stuffed up nose. Just like when you were a kid and plugged your nose when mom made you eat something you didn't like ( I know I did). It is also affected by the meds people often take when sick, in the same way that the foaming agent in tooth paste deadens your sense of sweet and savory so all you taste is bitter and sour. That's why your morning glass of orange juice tastes so bad after brushing your teeth. I wish you a speedy recovery and hope your taste buds and back in action soon.


----------



## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

It's totally understandable and it happens to most of us in some way.  If it doesn't happen to your wife, well then maybe her palette isn't as sensitive as yours.  I can clearly remember many times when I've tasted fish in something without fish in it.  It's odd.  Your sense of smell has a lot to do with it.  I too can remember when my Mother used to cook tripe and I couldn't stand the smell.  To battle it I would rub a napkin on a piece of chocolate and hold it up to my nose lol.


----------



## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

I temporary lost my sense of smell (and taste) due to some stupid medication years ago. It was like going crazy really. i couldnt eat at all. Smell is so close related to memories that even a slight perturbation of the sense has nasty psychological consequences.


----------



## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

There is some overlap with where the cranial nerves originate in the brain.  An affectation of one could overlap into one other.

-Former chiro here


----------



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

ordo said:


> I temporary lost my sense of smell (and taste) due to some stupid medication years ago. It was like going crazy really. i couldnt eat at all. Smell is so close related to memories that even a slight perturbation of the sense has nasty psychological consequences.


You got it back though right? You have your sense of smell now? 100%?

I lost my sense of smell for months a few years ago after I caught a virus. That really freaked me out! I posted about it in the late night cafe: http://www.cheftalk.com/t/49673/my-sense-of-smell-is-gone - it ended up coming back 100%.


----------



## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

FF: oh yes, 100% back in 2 weeks. Three days after that horrible thing began, i checked the medical laboratory instructions (which we need to read first of all) that innocently said that some _minor problems with smell and taste senses could appear_. I called them and made a huge complain. Idiots! I hope you'll be OK man.


----------



## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif/img/vbsmilies/smilies/tongue.gif/img/vbsmilies/smilies/cool.gif


----------



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

kokopuffs said:


> There is some overlap with where the cranial nerves originate in the brain. An affectation of one could overlap into one other.
> 
> -Former chiro here


Very interesting, thank you for chiming in kokopuffs. I wonder if this has any relation to what drugs do to our brain, or even to synesthesia?


----------



## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

FF: check 2004 Nobel Prizes.

http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=581


----------



## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

French Fries said:


> Very interesting, thank you for chiming in kokopuffs. I wonder if this has any relation to what drugs do to our brain, or even to synesthesia?


Well, if you're like Charles Baudelaire and are into ...


----------



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif Anyone got a lighter?





  








Absinthe_0.jpg?itok=6xPOz6xU




__
french fries


__
Oct 9, 2013


----------



## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

As I watched one of those drinks ignite at a bar in Paris, I stated:  Ce n'est pas un boisson, plutot, c'est un bonbon!


----------



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Un bonbon tres tres amer alors.


----------



## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

French Fries said:


> Un bonbon tres tres amer alors.


Also known as the "Green Fairy". A more standard drink for fighting a cold would be a "genièvre", the ancestor of gin. There's still a distillery in the north of France, called "Houlle" who makes a killer genièvre!

Anyway, speaking of the relation between what you smell and taste, please take a look at this website; https://www.foodpairing.com/

It is the work of a Belgian scientist that now turned into an important instrument for many renowned top-chefs worldwide to search for the perfect food matches, like oysters and... white chocolate.

The whole thing is based on the fact that taste is around 60% of smell! This guy, Bernard Lahousse, looks for analogue smell components in food to point out the best food matches. Often the results are weird and unusual, but they work. This website produces spiderweb-like charts when you do a search for "what goes well with...".


----------



## dobzre (Mar 3, 2011)

We actually perceive tastes better with our noses than our tongues, any and all nasal issues will affect the flavors of food. When it comes to chemically induced flavor problems its usually caused by compounds latching onto our taste receptors and causing us perceive everything as being bitter, especially citrus. Most notable the foaming agent it toothpaste "sodium laurel sulfate" + your morning OJ = EWWWWW


----------

