Why Your Favourite Foods Taste Strange When You Are Sick

A favourite meal can suddenly become strangely disappointing when you are ill. The spices seem weaker, fruit tastes oddly flat and even a comforting cup of tea may feel unfamiliar. It is easy to blame your taste buds, but the real explanation is more complicated. What you experience as flavour is created by several senses working together, particularly taste and smell. When a cold, flu or other illness interferes with your ability to smell, the brain receives much less information about what you are eating. Changes in saliva, a blocked nose, inflammation and some medicines can add to the effect. That is why food can seem almost flavourless even when your tongue is still working normally.