False salty taste for meat

jeb54321
jeb54321 Member Posts: 22
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
I just have to ask this one.

I've gotten a lot of my taste back. Egg nog actually tastes GOOD. Chocolate, not so much. I'm crazy on vegetarian soups. Fresh fruit is good, most sweets are not.

But the one that kills me is beef. I have tried several variations of beef dishes, soups, etc., and I've noticed that anything with beef has a very strong false salty flavor. That is, it tastes sort've of salty (very) but I can still somehow tell that its not really salt that I'm tasting.

And I've had my wife confirm that there is no real salt taste. Even low salt dishes with beef taste salty, sometimes so strongly that I can't even eat whatever it is.

What on earth IS that? Why do I have this new taste that I never had before? And why is it so icky.

I can eat chicken in some forms, but I'm mostly considering going vegetarian because of this saltiness thing (fish still makes me nauseous).

Anyone else have something odd like this? I have my share of things that don't taste "right", but this weird false saltiness is really strange.

Jim

Comments

  • pattyanny
    pattyanny Member Posts: 544
    #2
    I am with you Jim
    I am with you Jim. I have been living on vegetable soup, & cheerios! Beef tastes salty and yucky. Chicken, not much better. I cannot even stand the smell of the meat cooking! I did manage to have a small amount of spaghetti with ground beef in the sauce, but had to force myself. I wish I could help you, but glad to hear someone shares my same distaste for something I so enjoyed at one time. And I HATE those restaurant commercials with those big beefy juicy burgers - I miss them so much! But I can only hope - This too shall pass! Prayers, Patty
  • ratface
    ratface Member Posts: 1,337 Member
    #3
    pattyanny said:

    I am with you Jim
    I am with you Jim. I have been living on vegetable soup, & cheerios! Beef tastes salty and yucky. Chicken, not much better. I cannot even stand the smell of the meat cooking! I did manage to have a small amount of spaghetti with ground beef in the sauce, but had to force myself. I wish I could help you, but glad to hear someone shares my same distaste for something I so enjoyed at one time. And I HATE those restaurant commercials with those big beefy juicy burgers - I miss them so much! But I can only hope - This too shall pass! Prayers, Patty

    Thought I was alone
    Jim, pretty much everything I put in my mouth tasted like pure salt from about 6 weeks into treatment to about a month after. I could eat a spoonful of honey and it tasted like pure salt. It's gotten much better I got my sweet taste back but beef still taste like salt to me and soups taste like pure salt to me also. I just assumed they had a high sodium content. I'm certain it has something to do with what tastebuds we have left and are developing. I was Dx in July so I suppose we can't rush things. For the moment I'm on salads, cereals, and soups.
  • fishingirl
    fishingirl Member Posts: 188
    #4
    ratface said:

    Thought I was alone
    Jim, pretty much everything I put in my mouth tasted like pure salt from about 6 weeks into treatment to about a month after. I could eat a spoonful of honey and it tasted like pure salt. It's gotten much better I got my sweet taste back but beef still taste like salt to me and soups taste like pure salt to me also. I just assumed they had a high sodium content. I'm certain it has something to do with what tastebuds we have left and are developing. I was Dx in July so I suppose we can't rush things. For the moment I'm on salads, cereals, and soups.

    Everything seems to taste
    Everything seems to taste extra salty to me too!! And sweet things taste extra sweet too. I only take half as much sugar in my tea and coffee and it still tastes very sweet. I have been wanted reg. tea. Seems all day long I've got a cup of tea going. It's not decaffinated, so I'm wondering how bad that might be for me? At least it's not coffee? Or soda pop? And I still can't have anything citrusy. It's uncomfortable on the back of my throat. It kind of burns. So no Xmas oranges or me this yr :( And I LOVE THEM!!! lol!!

    Cindy
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #5
    Beef
    Jim

    It will take sometime for your body to adjust to the new Normal you. The very fact that you are tasting is good news, this is saying that your body is healing. Don’t rush it to much as it may take 6 months to a full year for it to heal all that it will heal.

    I am mostly vegetarian just eating very little chicken and some fish now and then. I find that I can’t eat beef at all, I just don’t like the texture or the taste of it, for me it is more like a rubberier taste left over in my mouth with no flavor at all.

    Take care
  • jeb54321
    jeb54321 Member Posts: 22
    #6
    Glad to hear it! Sort've...
    Well, I'm sorry to hear that this is a common side effect, but I sure am glad its not just me.

    I'm very quickly becoming largely vegetarian myself. I started on vegetarian soups at first because many say "low salt" and "no msg". It took me a while before I had my wife start tasting things for me which confirmed it was my tastebuds - or whats left of them - acting up, and not a problem with the food.

    I find that I can actually eat some chicken, like the chicken in the McDonald's salads, because its very tender, but I have a rough time with the breaded chicken wings and such that I used to love.

    Still trying new things every day, but I guess I'll just strike beef from the menu, at least for a while.

    I lost forty pounds and got down to a healthy weight for myself. Now I'm eating vegetarian and I've given up caffeine and alcohol.

    At this rate, I may live forever!

    Jim

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