Post injury food taste

[sospan]

Breakfast this morning was toast made from a national brand bread. Blindfolded, it could have been an interesting taste test to guess what it was : cardboard, plasterboard, ceiling tile. Anything but bread.

Then thinking back, I can't actually remember when I last really enjoyed food. I can taste things fine but don't really enjoy food. On the weekend we treated ourselves to a chinese takeaway. Even though we hadn't had one for over a year, it was underwhelming.

Anyone else feel disinterested in food ?

[cat3]

Both my taste and smell became corrupted a few weeks prior to my SAH ; everything tasted and smelled foul for two or three years. Nowadays I can't smell anything other than overwhelming smells like petrol or thinners. But tastes are now more normal and most food is appetizing.

Certain foods have remained a no-no though, such as tomatoes (used to be a favourite and still eat covered in white pepper to disguise the bitterness) and all red meat which has a sickening, putrid taste ; makes me literally gag...

Sorry you can't enjoy a nice buttery piece of toast though Sos ; that's a serious loss ! I had cranberry cheese, watercress and coleslaw for lunch but it was the cold buttered toast which made a meal of it ! 🍞🧈 😏 x

[sospan in reply to cat3]

Tomatoes and white pepper that's a first for me!

Think it is a combination of lack of appetite and no interest in food. For the largest person in the house, I have the smallest portions.

Maybe, it is an older person thing - food does not taste as good as when I was little - not that I was ever little!

[haverfordwest]

Totally lost interest in food since TBI over two years ago when I lost taste and smell. That was my heaven, going out for a strong coffee and tasty cake or out for a meal with all those flavours. Now my enjoyment is anything crunchy, crackers, crisps, nuts, celery, oh and polystyrene tiles (otherwise known as rice cakes). Anything which has texture and requires chewing. Hate pizza but started eating then now because of the nice crunchy bases. I really really really miss the aroma of coffee and toast and chinese and indian and garlic bread and candles and cut grass and and and and and and...........................................

[sospan in reply to haverfordwest]

I have come across a lot of people post injury whom go for the crackers, cheese and savoury snacks. A few of us were helping out on a project and the first day a few us had Jacobs cracker "sandwiches" with cheese in the middle.

Must admit to always being fond of chewing and crunching things - the burnt ends of meat and pork crackling - especially with beer, And now I could do with a pint of beer .....

[haverfordwest in reply to sospan]

What a good idea, think I'll join you, Iechyd da.😀

[Headshrink]

Wow. So interested to hear this. Absolutely. I lived on special K for about 3 months. I liked the texture, it tastes of cardboard. I tried it again recently and couldnt eat it!Then i obsessively ate dal for months and became veggie, although the climate change stuff also drove that, everyone must watch seaspiracy on Netflix.!. The smell of meat makes me feel sick and im a lifelong meateater, expert barbecuer!. Its gotten better now 2yrs later although i could totally just live on porridge or not eat at all, really weird

[sospan in reply to Headshrink]

My wife went through exactly the same. She had her own head injury in 2019 and prefers toast and marmalade to most foods. She also experienced the same thing with red meat. Chicken and fish is fine but the sight, smell or even taste of red meat turns on her. Even things like chili or bolognese where the meat is disguised and heavily spiced or herbed makes her gag! Like yourself she used to enjoy her meat.

The only meal she looks forward to is breakfast where she heats up weetabix or granola with milk to turn it into a porridge like gloop and then pile in blue berries, raspberries etc.

It isn't like we can not taste things it seems they have changed but also our enthusiasm for food

[Headshrink in reply to sospan]

Hqvibg gone veggie as a result of tge changes and now hqving qatcged seaspirqcy and cowspiracy, i have decided to go vegan and found agood milk alternative called rebel kitchen, dont like any if the other types. So we as a community can use our disinterest in food as a superpower to save the planet!

🤩

[FlowerPower62 in reply to Headshrink]

Seaspiracy should be compulsory viewing for all! 😁

[Headshrink in reply to FlowerPower62]

yes, my aversive experience was to smoked mackerel, it just smelt dead and that was me!

[FlowerPower62]

My husband lost his taste and smell after his TBI. I agree it's so rotten as eating is a big part of our lives. I just don't know why they can't come up with something - apparently a small nerve at the front of his skull was severed, and it can't be fixed. 😩Frustrating.

[sospan in reply to FlowerPower62]

We think my wife as similar damage to the trigeminal nerve. Apparently, damage to the nerve can be excruciating and it is so bad they call it the "suicide disease" because people get worn down with living with the pain, day in day out.

Having little time, I used a bottle sauce to make a curry last night. Although it was supposed to be a mild Korma, it was ferociously hot. My wife ate and didn't notice the heat - me, extra salad, drinks, towel to mop up the perspiration, drinks, chocolate.

urmc.rochester.edu/neurosur...

[FlowerPower62 in reply to sospan]

I didn't know the name of the nerve. Does your wife suffer pain from it? That's awful, he doesn't. Bad enough to have no taste or smell without it being painful too, I'm so sorry. He can taste really hot things. And he complains when I don't put sugar in his tea, do he must be able to taste a bit. Horrible though, isn't it.😩

[sospan in reply to FlowerPower62]

She was involved in a couple of car smashes in 2019. After the first one I realised that she wasn't moving her eyes properly (the old follow my finger) and she was moving her head not her eyes. In the collision she received an impact near the eye socket.

Then at the end of the year she was in another major collision. This time it was more of a high speed whiplash. Afterwards, I was convinced she was having a stroke episodes: blinding headaches, eyes closing, pain and paralysis in the face and with all that obviously couldn't speak properly. Her face and forehead is still sensitive to the touch 18 months after the collision. During the summer her sight diminished to a point where she was registered as Visually Impaired

The trigeminal nerve comes from the brainstem exits the back of the head and comes around to the front of the face where it splits into 3. The top goes to the forehead, central to control the eyes and the third goes to the nose and mouth.

We really noticed it when she went to the dentist for a filling. The dentist couldn't get the anesthetic to work. 4 to 5 injections went in with no effect, her teeth were still sensitive. The next day a huge black eye !

[FlowerPower62 in reply to sospan]

My God, sounds horrendous. She's really been through it, poor thing. I wish you both all the very best. Xx

[sashaming1]

I lost my senses of smell and taste after a brain injury. It takes the fun out of eating - but I still do - maybe too much.