Food Before and After Treatment

Good Topic
Hondo,

I find myself tasting different things at different times because it seems my taste changes every so often. Like Hal said, his taste changes day to day.

I think I create some of my own problems though. I stumble on to something that I can taste and then I eat it so much that I become sick of it and then have to find something else that I can taste : ) As Homer Simpson would say " Duh ". I did that with Yogurt not too long ago. Found the fruit on the bottom yogurt tasted pretty good and eat it everyday. Now I can't look at it....

My Best to You and Everyone Here

sweetblood22 said:

My taste buds are still out
My taste buds are still out of whack. I don't have taste fully back yet and you can clearly see that my tongue is shiny and glossy and smooth. Where before it had a lot of taste buds and looked different. There are many foods that no longer taste right to me, plus many that burn now. Apparently I was a super taster before treatment. I don't like bitter stuff like kale, radicchio, grapefruit (blech!!!), coffee (must have a ton of milk for me to drink it) green tea, soy products, artificial sweeteners (such as aspartame or saccharin), chili peppers - capsaicin burn is more intense in supertasters,
tonic water - quinine is more bitter to supertasters, olives - for a given concentration, salt is more intense in supertasters, and also very sugary foods I wasn't fond of. I didn't really go for sweets. Only exception was chocolate. Olives I sort of liked as I grew older. Sort of kept at them til I liked them.

Article on super tasters:

http://supertastertest.com/

Now, I can taste sweet better than anything else so I do find myself liking and eating sweet things now. I can eat sweet potato, ice cream and I really didn't do that before rads. I also found I don't mind brussel sprouts, Swiss cheese, sourkraut, and fresh peas which I really never ate before.

I have been eating Swiss cheese last couple weeks and it tastes kinda good and a little nutty to me. I hated Swiss so much before that it made me gaggy. Go figure.

Supertaster
I don't know about supertaster, but I had the ability to taste the difference in sweet things. I was told that only a small percentage of the population had that ability. I used to make money doing market reasearch for a local company.

Ice Cream
For a long time, a lot of things tasted nasty that I use to like a lot. My wife makes awesome soups, chicken noodle, beef stew, chili, even spaghetti.

For a long time those all tasted nasty, within the last few months, they are probably 90% as good as before...chili especially. About a month ago, I think we made chili four times in two weeks, LOL.

I always lived ice cream before, mainly anything with nuts in it. I had lost the ability to taste sweet flavors for many months after treatment. Dairy in general was slow coming back, I'm a big milk drinker, that has improved 90% also.

It has slowly started to improve the last time I tried it. For whatever reason (weight mainly, LOL)...I haven't tried it for awhile.

I might just need to give it another shot before long.

Cherry pies or turnovers have always been a treat also, that taste has finally came back also as of the Holidays...:)

Best,
John

FOODS I LIKE
I have found being 90+ days out, the things I used to eat regularly just will not go down. I was a big BBQ afficionado, but cannot chew meat, pork or chicken to the point that I can swallow it. I even tried a grilled ground beef patty that tasted great, but got stuck in the back of my throat.

I can however successfully eat just about any type of grilled/broiled white flaky fish with out much problem. As soon as it gets any breading on it, it will not go down.
I find myself eating allot of oatmeal, canned soft pasta, soups, canned chilli ETC.

Taste wise, i will eat something knowing what it should taste like, but it usually falls short of that.

Eatimg used to be a pleasure for me, now it is just s chore. If I do not want the frustration or letdown of eating, I just tube feed.

Mike

ratface said:

Spanish peanuts are impossible now
I've found that my eating has gotten pretty boring and routine. Breakfast is typically oatmeal with fruit and nuts. Occasionally cereal. Lunch is always a salad heaped with dressing, blue cheese or french. A normal size bottle of dressing typically will last 3-4 salads. I just need the moisture to help with chewing. Dinner is varied among a fairly wide spectrum though, say 20-30 recipies from braised beef to salmon, soups, stews, and pastas. I don't do breads, and rice dishes and snacking on Spanish peanuts is just impossible. Pizza is challenging but doable but has lost it's flavor and appeal.

I miss pizza so much!
Things I miss the most:

Spaghetti and meat sauce
Pizza
Steak (wasn't a big steak or meat eater before)
BBQ chicken wings (my father calls his Mother Clucker's Famous Wings)
Fried chicken
Cheesesteaks
Pesole (a pork, chicken and hominy slow cooked yummy stew like dish ~ south west yummy)
Lamb chops
Crusty bread

One thing I do when I make my small ice cream cone almost every night is I use two flavors. I fill the cone part with one and top with a spoonful of the other. I think it makes it more enjoyable. After a bit the ice cream doesn't taste as intense, I think switching up the flavors makes it more enjoyable. I figured that out when all I had one night was a tiny bit of chocolate and a tiny bit of pumpkin ice cream left. It was suprisingly really good. I always put the most intense flavor on the bottom.

I'm using a lot more fresh herbs these days. Trying anything to amp up some flavor to make my food tastier. I find I like the taste of thyme a lot now. Which is good because it lends itself well to mushrooms which I make a lot in lieu of meat, since I can't swallow much meat. I can also taste basil and so I use that as well. For dried spices cinnamon is finally better for me. I loved it and couldn't eat it for a long time. Glad that I can tolerate it now. I think I love curry powder even more now than I did before.

Some spices are really good for you and high in antioxidants. Cinnamon, turmeric, Ginger, garlic, cumin, cloves, chili powder and black pepper (can't do the pepper yet) Curry which contains a lot of the above is like a super duper spice. I am glad that I can enjoy more herbs and spices now. I also hated pumpkin pie spices and carrot cake and pumpkin roll before treatment. Now I don't mind that spice combo and kinda like it.

abbimom said:

spicy
I use to love spicy foods but that is out of the picture. I also use to like cereal but most of them taste metallic to me now except when I was pregnant it tasted good. I loved steak even cold in the morning but now it is too hard for me to eat. I miss being able to eat and not have to take a drink after every bite. I also miss being able to eat a slice of pizza in less than 20 minutes. So many changes. I also miss gum and hard candy they either sting or get stuck in my teeth. In general I miss eating food that was not drenched in sauces or gravy. But I'm still lucky because I'm here and I can still eat just very slowly.

Ice cream tip!
Sweet I appreciate your idea of making a double scoop cone with two different flavour's. I noticed after a bit the flavour has disappeared. The light bulb in my head suddenly clicked
on after looking at your post. Thank you for your great cooking & eating tip's!

rozaroo said:

Ice cream tip!
Sweet I appreciate your idea of making a double scoop cone with two different flavour's. I noticed after a bit the flavour has disappeared. The light bulb in my head suddenly clicked
on after looking at your post. Thank you for your great cooking & eating tip's!

Not cool-
to have been a Burger King Whopper fan, but I used to really really like them. Bigtime. It was maybe some 7 months, post-treatment, that I dared on a Sunday to celebrate with a Whopper= not good. Think I tried just one other time, and still not good. Perhaps it is a blessing, considering the Nutritional value of the Whopper.

kcass

Kent Cass said:

Not cool-
to have been a Burger King Whopper fan, but I used to really really like them. Bigtime. It was maybe some 7 months, post-treatment, that I dared on a Sunday to celebrate with a Whopper= not good. Think I tried just one other time, and still not good. Perhaps it is a blessing, considering the Nutritional value of the Whopper.

kcass

BK Burgers
Sorry you can't taste it or it being as good as before...

Still a favorite of mine...actually the double cheeseburgers, and now the Steakhouse Stuffed with Cheddar and Jalapeños.

JG