Sudden Changes In Taste

[Tunn11]

Aren't young children meant to prefer sweet foods as they are less likely to be poisonous?

As immortalised by Bill Watterson's Calvin.

I stopped taking sugar in coffee and for a week it tasted horrible. After a week it tasted horrible with sugar.

I can take or leave milk in coffee but I also prefer filter coffee to "americano". I'm always asked how I can tell the difference and apart from the taste I always point to the lack of scum on the surface of the filter coffee.

 

[Cochise]

I totally went off coffee about 15 years ago, only drink tea now for my caffeine intake. Don't know why. Drank gallons of coffee before.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I made a fruitcake on Sunday, for a friend. Now, I LOVE cake, to the extent that I sometimes have to cut back on my intake... but when I tried a couple of slices of the cake I'd made (purely for experimental purposes, you understand...) I found it almost disgustingly sweet.

I'd been faffing with the recipe when I made it, and thought I must have somehow mismeasured the sugar, because this was SWEET.

Anyway, I left it until Tuesday, wrapped in foil, then I had a small slice on Tuesday night, because I had to deliver it on Wednesday and wanted to make sure it hadn't...well, gone off or anything. And it tasted absolutely fine. Not to sweet at all, just like a normal fruit cake.

And then I remembered that last week, and on Sunday, I had cut right back on the refined sugar. Nothing but fruit for several days (well, ordinary food, but nothing with much sugar in, only fruit for dessert). So I guess that eating very little sugar for a few days, had reset my taste buds and resulted in the cake tasting massively too sweet, only for them to go back to normal by Tuesday (because I'd been eating a more normal diet for me, with more sugar in it).

So maybe sometimes our taste buds can be a little bit sensitive to something we've not had for a while?

This happened to me when I went on the Cambridge Diet over 25 years ago.
I stuck to it strictly and lost 3.5 stones in just a few weeks.
The milk shakes on the diet have only artificial sweeteners in them.
Having my first sugary drink after coming off the diet was interesting. It tasted unbelievably sweet, almost sickening.

 

[Floyd]

Aren't young children meant to prefer sweet foods as they are less likely to be poisonous?

I was wondering about this the other day. I loved sweet, sugary crap up until 15 or so.

 

[Floyd]

So maybe sometimes our taste buds can be a little bit sensitive to something we've not had for a while?

This happened to me when I went on the Cambridge Diet over 25 years ago.
I stuck to it strictly and lost 3.5 stones in just a few weeks.
The milk shakes on the diet have only artificial sweeteners in them.
Having my first sugary drink after coming off the diet was interesting. It tasted unbelievably sweet, almost sickening.

I noticed this recently when I gave up salt for a couple of weeks. Within just a few days I found something I'd eaten many times before, way too salty now. And I even used to add salt to it before.

 

[SimonBurchell]

I noticed this recently when I gave up salt for a couple of weeks. Within just a few days I found something I'd eaten many times before, way too salty now. And I even used to add salt to it before.

I completely agree with that - whenever I come back from a country where I have been living on natural produce rather than pre-processed crap, everything that I buy from a UK supermarket (except fresh fruit and veg) tastes way too salty, it takes a few weeks to get used to it again.

 

[Tunn11]

I completely agree with that - whenever I come back from a country where I have been living on natural produce rather than pre-processed crap, everything that I buy from a UK supermarket (except fresh fruit and veg) tastes way too salty, it takes a few weeks to get used to it again.

Isn't that related to one of the points in the aquatic ape theory? We humans don't have any mechanism to tell us when we've had enough salt, a feature shared with sea going mammals. Therefore we can keep eating the stuff to the point where it stops doing us any good.

Most land based mammals (deer, etc.) will use a salt lick when they need salt then seem to have no desire for it.