Invite a friend over for a little research. This activity requires only three materials: a bandana or handkerchief for a blindfold, an onion, and an apple. You may already see where this is going. Ask your friend to blindfold you. Then, hold your nose shut. If you prefer, you can clothespin your nose shut, but this may hurt. Once your nose is held shut and you cannot smell anything, ask your friend to feed you either a piece of the apple or a piece of the onion. What do you taste? Sweet? Salty? Sour? The answer is, you probably won’t be able to taste anything, and this is exactly what’s going on when you have a cold and the reasons for taste loss.
The Common Cold
Having a cold occurs when a rhinovirus invades your body and your immune system kicks into overdrive to get rid of it. You experience nasal drip, coughing, and sneezing, because these are ways the body uses to get rid of foreign bodies such as viruses. When your nose gets clogged up with mucus, it makes it quite difficult for you to smell. Believe it or not, this can actually lead to loss of taste.
The Human Tongue
Your tongue is made up of approximately 10,000 taste buds called papillae. Taste buds are responsible for sending signals to your brain, letting your brain know whether or not what you’re putting in your mouth is savory, sweet, bitter, or sour. Your tongue can also tell whether foods are soft, hard, coarse, smooth, and so forth. Having a cold is one of the reasons for loss of taste, but it’s not because having a cold affects your tongue specifically.
The Taste-Smell Connection
Your tongue is responsible for tasting food, but much of your sense of taste relies on your sense of smell. Your nose sends signals to the brain that are cross-referenced with what you’re tasting. This creates an illusion of taste, whereby if you cannot smell what you’re eating, chances are, you won’t truly be able to taste what you’re eating. This means that if you cannot smell, taste is somewhat irrelevant, even though the food you’re putting into your mouth is still triggering your taste buds.
What Happens During a Cold?
During a cold, losing your ability to smell is one of the reasons for taste loss. Your nose can get plugged up with mucus as your nose runs. You blow your nose to get rid of this mucus, but it continues to clog up your olfactory senses, thus keeping you from being able to smell. Just like the activity mentioned at the beginning of this article, without your sense of smell, it’s going to be difficult if at all to taste anything you eat. Thus, when you have a cold and a stuffy nose to go with it, you’re unable to smell and subsequently unable to taste.
Don’t Be a Food Critic During A Cold
So, if you’ve got a cold, it’s really not a good idea to be a food critic, because you won’t be able to taste anything. It’s always good to visit a specialist and once you’re better and you don’t have as much mucus in your nose, you’ll be able to smell and thus taste once again.