Taste: Surprising Stories and Science About Why Food Tastes Good (62 page)

Don’t be afraid to use chiles, whether they’re dried, smoked, or fresh. They, like citrus, are virtually free of sodium, sugar, and calories. My favorite is ground chipotle chile. A little bit goes a long way toward shifting the tactile system into gear, as well adding a nice smoky background note. And of course, ramp up the other spices in your food, especially if you can’t tolerate heat. Keep shakers of chipotle, cinnamon, smoked paprika, cumin, and basil at the table along with the salt and pepper. If your smell system isn’t completely gone, it’s possible you might just need to turn up the volume. Be sure to try all of these methods of cranking it up (acid, texture, heat, spices) before you resort to adding more salt or sugar to your food. These two ingredients can result in unintended side effects if you have other health issues like hypertension or diabetes.

Healthy people generally have healthy smell and taste systems that may decline with age, but this usually happens slowly unless something else is going on. And if something else is going on, it’s likely to require medication. Most older people take some if not many medications these days. It helps to know which drugs can reduce sensory stimulation. A wide variety of drug classes can affect smell. This is not a definitive list, but it’s a start.

Drugs That Can Cause Smell Disorders

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Damage probably requires long-term use.

Source: Christopher H. Hawkes and Richard L. Doty,
The Neurology of Olfaction,
Cambridge University Press, 2009.

The dental surgery for removing wisdom teeth occurs very close to where the chorda tympani taste nerve runs through the jawline. If you’ve got a painful third molar, this is bad news because your dentist could unwittingly sever your taste nerve. The good news is that damage done by this procedure can be reversed, but it must be done in the first six months following the event. If you are going to have this surgery, keep close tabs on how you experience taste after the procedure. If you notice anything wonky, you’ll want to get back in to see the dentist right away. Remember, the clock is ticking on reattaching this nerve.

Many other drugs and medical issues can cause smell and taste loss. The point is to fight the loss. Don’t just shrug your shoulders and accept a lifetime of diminishing flavor. Keep tinkering away at the table and in the kitchen until you find something that helps.

One of the only preventable causes of smell and taste loss is head injuries that result from accidents. In a study of 542 patients who went to the University of
Pennsylvania Smell and Taste Center, 20 percent of them had experienced some sort of head trauma. It’s important to prevent smell loss because we don’t know how to repair it. When it comes to olfaction, a pound of prevention can eliminate the need for a nonexistent cure.

All you need is a case of whiplash or a really bad fall to sever your olfactory nerve slightly, even completely. Wear your seat belt as the best defense. Wear a helmet when you ski, bike, skate, or skateboard. Don’t let your kids engage in full-contact sports where they might have their head slammed into the ground. It’s important to prevent smell loss because we don’t know how to repair it.

Some doctors will claim they can cure your smell loss with medication, which has yet to be proved scientifically. Others tell their patients that smell loss is irreparable, even when that smell system may be repairing itself through constant regeneration.

Ear infections can damage the chorda tympani nerve, the one that runs from the tongue through the inner ear and on to the brain. If you or your children experience ear pain, be sure to treat it early and completely. The same goes for all viral and bacterial infections including the common flu. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in six people carries the herpes virus, a common cause of loss of taste buds. If you don’t know whether or not you have this virus, ask your doctor to test you.

Try new foods. It takes five to ten attempts at trying something before you can say you really don’t like it. And remember, it’s best to be adventurous in a calm, familiar environment. This is especially true for kids. They can handle only so many challenging tasks at a time.

If you want your kids to try something new, make up a punch card with the word
taste
written on it eight times.
²⁶
Or copy and cut out the card I’ve included here. Each time they taste something, have them punch out one taste. And if they try it eight times, tell them they don’t ever have to try it again. Ever. But make sure
you
don’t lose patience before the eighth try. Chances are that those eight tastings will have given them some level of appreciation for the food, whether they choose to continue eating it or not.

Being adventurous is also great advice for older adults who are starting to experience taste or smell loss. If the same food you’ve always eaten starts to taste bland, mix it up. Push yourself to try a new ethnic cuisine like Indian, Thai, or Vietnamese. You’ll experience the new flavors innocently with no preconceived notion of what they “used to” taste like. Without a norm, you won’t experience the food as lacking tastes or flavors. And if you don’t immediately love the new cuisine, be patient. Remember that the same rule applies for adults as for kids. It takes a minimum of five or six tries.

The ever-present microorganisms that take up residence in our food start to die off when food reaches 140°F, so I strongly advise you to heat anything you’re cooking to this temperature or higher. Unfortunately, hot food will burn your mouth at about 130°F. I’ve always got burns in my mouth because I completely lack patience. If you want to get the most out of your food with the least degree of burn, it’s best to taste it at about 120°F or lower. Keep in mind that burning your mouth doesn’t mean that your ability to taste is diminished, at least not in the long run. Mildly burned buds regenerate in ten to fourteen days.

Don’t wait too long to taste your food, though. There’s a reason why hot soup tastes better than cold, beyond the fact that you expect soup to be hot. When soup is hot, it releases more volatiles. If you let your soup cool off too much, you will miss many of its wonderful aromas. If you want to experience them as your food is cooling down, put your nose near your plate and breathe deeply.

When food is cold or frozen, the aromatic volatile compounds are less active. Even foods you normally store at cold or room temperatures can be warmed up to coax a little bit more flavor out of them: cheese, fruit, vegetables, and bread, for instance. If I have stored strawberries in the fridge (which I don’t like to do but must when I buy by a full flat), I will run them under hot water before serving. And I’ve even been known to put a bowl of guacamole in the microwave for a few seconds to shake the chill off it. All of these foods are exceedingly more aromatic at room than refrigerator temperature.

Don’t ever store or serve a tomato at refrigerator temperature. Cup it gently in your hands to warm it up—it tastes so much better without a chill. Please promise me you’ll respect my favorite food by storing and serving it properly.

Saliva helps liberate the volatile aromas in food. If you notice that you seem to have less saliva than you’ve had in the past, check your medication. If you can’t attribute an unusually dry mouth to a specific medication, see your doctor. Many drugs, even over-the-counter remedies such as Claritin and Sudafed, can dry the mouth and nasal passages. Of course, if you’re too stuffed up to taste, they can help you taste more. But if your mouth is too dry, you can end up tasting less.

While water differs in chemical composition from your saliva, it is a fairly good secondary backup. Always have a glass with your meal for those times when you need a little bit more moisture. Of course, you’ll use it to cleanse your mouth out between bites, as well, to prevent adaptation.

One long, sustained inhalation works better than a series of short sniffs to suck the volatile aroma compounds far up into your olfactory system where it goes straight to your brain: Do not pass the thalamus! Do not collect $200! The faster and more easily you get the aroma molecules up there, the faster you’ll experience the pleasure they give.

Breathing deeply is also important while you’re chewing. Our ability to
smell through both the nose and mouth makes up for what we lack in olfactory sensitivity.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Circulate the aromas through the system. Have fun with it but don’t get too carried away with the laughing or this design feature will reroute liquids up from your mouth and out your nose.

Your taste and smell systems are much more acute early in the morning. They’re still virgins. They have not been violated by other tastes and smells for eight hours; therefore you aren’t experiencing any taste or smell adaptation, satiety, or cross-contamination. But one sip of orange juice, one bite of banana, one bowl of granola, and your buds have surrendered their virginity. That is, until you go another long stretch without eating.

There are two problems with suggesting that you savor all your food early in the morning: lunch and dinner. There’s not much you can do about this, but you can create a virtual virgin palate by not eating, smoking, or drinking anything for two hours prior to your meal. This is the protocol that many research scientists use when they’re conducting experiments. If it’s good enough for the lab, it’s good enough for you.

Here’s another tip that can help you get more out of your restaurant experiences. When you dine out, it’s common to reach the end of meal and want dessert but realize you shouldn’t. Yes, you could share a dessert, but you’ve been eating for a few hours, so it’s likely that it won’t taste as good as it would with a virgin palate. Order the dessert to go! The next morning, treat yourself to dessert in lieu of breakfast. Your fresh palate will absorb the full vibrancy of the flavors. Just remember to take it out of the fridge in time to warm it up.

Smoking can impair your ability to smell. If you’re unable to quit—and I don’t blame
you
, I blame the nicotine—at least refrain from smoking for at least two hours before your next meal. Your sense of smell is impaired immediately following a cigarette, but recovers quickly. Two hours will do the trick. Unfortunately, most smokers associate smoking with mealtime and look forward to the pre-and
post-meal smoke. Try your best to dissociate smoking from mealtime entirely.

If you absolutely must smoke after a meal, wait until the delicious aftertaste has cleared from your mouth. One of the pleasures of a great meal is the warm glow that follows. Why extinguish it early with the taste and smell of ignited tobacco?

To allow your food to take center stage, make the nose-smelling environment as neutral as possible. Avoid strong perfumes, lotions, hair products, aftershave, and air fresheners. If you must, use them with restraint.

If you’re over the age of sixty, use them with even greater restraint. If you’re prone to smell loss, the odds are that this is the age when you’ll start experiencing it. And unless you want to be perceived as Grandma or Grandpa—in an olfactory sense—it’s probably a good idea to err on the side of less cologne. If in doubt, ask someone if you’ve applied the right amount, too much, or too little.