Nutrition Guidelines for Changes in Taste

Some medications and therapies, such as radiation therapy to the neck or to the head area, can affect your sense of taste, either dulling your taste buds or actually changing the way a food or drink tastes.

By varying the food and drink in your diet and including dishes that offer a range of different aromas, colors, flavors, textures, and temperatures, you may please your other senses and increase both your desire to eat and your ability to taste and enjoy your meals.

Below are some specific ideas to help make eating and drinking more pleasurable:

• Use lemon, sugar, or vinegar on foods or in drinks to help stimulate your taste buds. Also try a small glass of lemonade, orange juice, or wine during a meal.

• Experiment with herbs and spices -- such as basil, dill weed, garlic, ginger, oregano, and mint -- to enhance the taste and smell of your food.

• Lightly salt your food to add flavor.

• Try adding chopped onions to casseroles, soups, and vegetables; topping salads with bacon bits, grated cheese, and ham strips; and marinating meats in sweet fruit juices, Italian dressing, wine, or flavorful sauces (barbecue, soy, sweet-and-sour, teriyaki).

• If you find that red meat has a bitter, metallic taste, try getting your protein from other protein sources, such as chicken, dairy products, eggs, legumes, nuts and seeds, peanut butter, seafood, and tofu. Also try using plastic eating utensils.

• Acidic foods, such as citrus fruits and pineapple, may help you to overcome metallic tastes and to increase your saliva production. In helping to break down foods in your mouth, saliva brings out the bitter, salty, sweet, and/or sour flavors.

• To eliminate a bad taste in your mouth, try fresh fruit or sugar-free candy, gum, or ginger ale.

Caution: Sugar-free candy and gum that is sweetened with sorbitol may cause diarrhea.

The above opinionated views and information serves to educated and informed consumer .  The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. .It should not replaced professional advise and consultation.A licensed physician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions