I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
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Re: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
#2Fascinating story, especially because the writer has real experience. The bit about how she felt about this loss was poignant to me.
Re: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
#3I lost my sense of taste for about a week last year (Not Covid related, apparently). I was honestly hoping it was gone forever. I've never eaten so healthily in my life. It's really easy to not eat garbage when everything tastes the same anyways. The sadness of not being able to taste cheeseburgers again was completely offset by the lack of desire to eat cheeseburgers anymore. If anything, the biggest issue is that b/c eating felt like a chore, the first few days I grossly under-ate (Strangely enough I could still smell, and as the author points out, smell is an important danger indicator, so I would definitely be more frustrated losing that.
Re: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
#4Interesting story I feel for the author. However, I think we are prone to hysteria about certain covid symptoms - I and my extended family have all had covid and we can all still smell. A small sample of 10ish people from thanksgiving thru now but these sorts of click bait articles leave many believing covid is commonly very severe (no, even people in their 50s have mild cold symptoms in general) and had a bunch if terrible after effects. I'm mid thirties, over weight and eat ramen noodles for lunch and dinner - I got over covid in a day or two of fever.
Re: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
#5I lost my sense of taste for about a week last year (Not Covid related, apparently). I was honestly hoping it was gone forever. I've never eaten so healthily in my life. It's really easy to not eat garbage when everything tastes the same anyways. The sadness of not being able to taste cheeseburgers again was completely offset by the lack of desire to eat cheeseburgers anymore. If anything, the biggest issue is that b…
So it's definitely not the covid symptoms, it's inversed. Covid symptoms affect primally smell, which in turn affects taste.
But i think with covid can still taste basic flavours like salt, sugar... But not complex flavours from smell.
Re: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
#6I lost my sense of taste for about a week last year (Not Covid related, apparently). I was honestly hoping it was gone forever. I've never eaten so healthily in my life. It's really easy to not eat garbage when everything tastes the same anyways. The sadness of not being able to taste cheeseburgers again was completely offset by the lack of desire to eat cheeseburgers anymore. If anything, the biggest issue is that b…
So it's definitely not the covid symptoms, it's inversed. Covid symptoms affect primally smell, which in turn affects taste. But i think with covid can still taste basic flavours like salt, sugar... But not complex flavours from smell.
Based on things I've heard but not confirmed, the tongue is only able to meaningfully detect about 4 things and a lot of what we sense as "taste" is actually provided by our olfactory senses.
I had COVID for a while a month or so ago and my sense of smell was gone for about 2 weeks. Completely obliterated. It's like, you think you know what 'total darkness' is like until the first time you're in a cave and someone turns off the lights. It was like that but for smell. I couldn't smell an open bottle of vinegar under my nose.
Anyway, I can confirm that I could only appreciate the basest of flavors. As a food addict, I honestly wish it had been permanent because it removed a whole lot of temptation to eat for entertainment.
Re: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
So it's definitely not the covid symptoms, it's inversed. Covid symptoms affect primally smell, which in turn affects taste. But i think with covid can still taste basic flavours like salt, sugar... But not complex flavours from smell.
Based on things I've heard but not confirmed, the tongue is only able to meaningfully detect about 4 things and a lot of what we sense as "taste" is actually provided by our olfactory senses. I had COVID for a while a month or so ago and my sense of smell was gone for about 2 weeks. Completely obliterated. It's like, you think you know what 'total darkness' is like until the first time you're in a cave and someone tu…
What you have heard is correct. Taste in itself is done on the tongue, and consists mostly of salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. (Though not on different parts of the tongue, as is commonly taught. That's long outdated, and was a misunderstanding from the beginning.) There may be some other taste sensations as well, but not many.
Flavor is taste on the tongue plus the smell of things going through the back of the throat to the nose. The illusion that the flavor is all in the mouth is very, very powerful -- but it's much the same way as looking at something doesn't make you think the object is in your eye. The sense of smell has far, far more shades than taste does -- tens of thousands at a minimum, maybe many more.
Vinegar (especially plain white vinegar) is almost completely a taste -- you sense acidity with the sour receptors on the tongue, and that's all you get. It should taste more or less the same in your mouth, but you might not be able to tell the difference between white vinegar and cider vinegar.