No sense of taste! (Help!)
It happened guys - I suffered through a week of Covid-19 symptoms recently. I am all better now, but the most traumatic part of it was, surprisingly, losing my sense of taste. I share what I learned.
It happens quickly.
“What flavour is this Lemsip meant to be?” I asked my partner, who was a few days ahead of me with Covid-19 symptoms and had started coming out the other side. We both got hit with it and thanks to being fully vaccinated, it didn’t feel much worse than having a bad cold. “Lemon”, he responded, looking at me a bit weird. Of course it was. I could see my drink was bright yellow, but all of a sudden, I had absolutely no sense of smell… or taste. And that Lemsip in the morning was when I discovered it.
At first it was kind of hilarious. I snacked on some pickled ginger from a jar in the fridge. Nothing. I tried to smell coffee beans from our coffee machine. Nothing. It was super strange. The first time we got a bit worried was when we massively over-roasted a batch of peanuts in the oven. We’d forgot that we had to put a timer on everything, because two people without a sense of smell can not be trusted to know when something has been in there long enough!
After a few days, having absolutely no sense of taste really started getting to me. To be a food blogger when you can’t taste a thing and only want to eat the tiniest amount of food when you’re hungry so you are not reminded of it, is pretty sad. Having my senses dulled like that made me feel like I was depressed or really down, like there was no stimulation from anything around me.
As we continue to learn to live with the threat of Covid-19 around us for the foreseeable time, I believe it is realistic to expect that most of us will get it at some point. As I said, we were of course both vaccinated, and were very careful still with where we went and how we protected ourselves. But it got us in the end. I wouldn’t fear it too much, I have felt much worse from a bad cold or a flu in the past, although it is going to affect us all differently of course and I don’t in any way recommend not caring about whether you get it or not. Please try to be as careful as you can and especially, of course, protect the vulnerable around you.
The loss of sense of taste doesn’t happen to everyone, different percentages are being reported, but it is clear that it is a fairly common symptom of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Even people who display no other symptoms might realise they have caught it when their sense of smell and/or taste goes.
If this happens to you, and you are a food lover like me, I want to share some of the things I learned that can help you cope.
It will come back. Just like when you are ill and suddenly can’t remember what it’s like to feel well, and it feels like you’ll be like this forever, it can feel like that with a temporary loss of senses. In worst cases the loss can last for months. This fact made me panic, but please don’t! I got mine back within a week. I had totally given up on cooking, and the first thing I could taste was an asparagus Cup A Soup. It was the best Cup A Soup I have ever had and I will never forget it. I cried.
Apparently, the thing that takes the longest to recover are your olfactory senses. They are the nerves that give you sense of smell, and are also connected to your sense of taste (as I’m sure you know from temporary losing a sense of taste if your nose is completely blocked from a cold, for example). So you might start getting some reactions from your taste buds on your tongue, even if you can’t really taste! It’s quite fun. My lovely partner got me some sour sweets that helped me feel like I could taste, because my tongue reacted to them. Some spice, like Tabasco, or salt, can feel nice too. Be careful to not eat too much salt though, as it can dehydrate you and that’s the last thing you need when recovering from illness!
Some crunchy food can feel nice. I made a salad with lots of different textures, like steamed broccoli (still hard enough to give a bit of resistance), fresh lettuce, croutons, lentil pasta and toasted nuts.
Warm food is comforting as you can feel it in your body. A warm, creamy soup can be good - if you have a healthy one it might make you feel better too, plus - hydration! Bonus!
You can make the most of it and eat or drink things you know are good for you, but that you don’t love! As it was so depressing having coffee that tasted of absolutely nothing every morning, I switched to matcha tea - just pure matcha powder and water. I don’t really love matcha (unless it’s used as an ingredient in baked goods or a smoothie), it’s a bit bitter for me. But when I couldn’t taste a thing, at least I knew that I was drinking something that was super good for me, which was encouraging!
You will have days when you really just can’t be bothered. I honestly had fish fingers and chips for lunch two days in a row and lots of things that were as far from cooked from scratch as you can get - and that’s totally fine. Just try not to get stuck in that habit for too long, as it won’t help you feel good in the long run.
You can actually train your sense of smell to come back, it seems. Whuuu?! I read about this and it fascinated me. Smelling a few different things that have distinct smells for about 20 seconds each a day, can help get your olfactory senses going again, according to some research. This is of course all quite new and still developing, and it won’t work for everyone. I tried to smell different things every day - I don’t know whether it was part of getting my senses back up and running so quickly or not, but what I do know is that it was a fantastic feeling to start noticing that I could smell it more and more every day. The day I could smell coffee beans and cinnamon again was one that almost deserves an anniversary.
If you do struggle for a long time and nothing seems to help, don’t think you are alone in finding this tough mentally. There are actually charities set up for people who suffer with this. So don’t suffer on your own with it, find someone to talk to who has been there!
Have you had Covid-19 and experienced losing your sense of taste and/or smell? I would love to hear your story. Message me on Instagram @TheFromScratchBody!
