Nutrition
Have you noticed through the years some of your favorite foods just don’t seem to taste the same and are less enjoyable? Let’s make some sense of what’s going on with some of your senses and what you can do about it.
About your taste buds
Adults have between 2,000 and 4,000 taste buds, each with between 10 and 50 sensory cells. These taste buds cover the tongue and send taste signals to the brain through nerves. Taste buds vary in their sensitivity to different kinds of tastes; some are especially good at sensing sweetness, while others are attuned to bitter flavors. Taste buds are designed to regenerate; their cells are replaced every 1-2 weeks.
Your taste buds can detect five basic flavors:
- Bitter
- Salty
- Savory
- Sour
- Sweet
The effects of aging on our senses
When you eat, your senses of taste and smell work together to help enjoy that delicious grilled steak, decadent chocolate cake or rich cup of coffee. But when something goes wrong with either senses, your enjoyment of food can change too.
As we get older, it can get harder to notice flavors. Some women start losing their taste buds in their 40s. For men, the change can happen in their 50s. Also, as we age taste buds may shrink and become less sensitive. Salty and sweet flavors tend to weaken first. Later, it may be more difficult to taste things that are bitter or sour.
Age can also lessen the sense of smell which is strongest when people are between 30 and 60 years old. Some people eventually lose their sense of smell entirely.
What causes taste buds to change?
Besides the natural aging process, there are other reasons our sense of taste can change:
- Medications can affect how taste buds pick up flavors or add different chemicals into saliva which can change the sense of taste. Different types of medications can have different effects:
- Blood pressure medications, also called ACE inhibitors, can change taste sensitivity and leave a metallic, bitter or sweet taste in the mouth, and some blood pressure medications can also affect smell
- Antidepressants and antihistamines can dry out the mouth and make it harder for flavors to reach the taste buds
- Heart medications, also called beta blockers, can interfere with the sense of taste and smell
- Illness — chronic or short term — changes so much about our physiology and can definitely affect the senses, especially:
- A nose, throat or sinus infection
- A head injury which might affect the nerves related to taste and smelll
- A polyp or growth that blocks your nasal passage
- Oral health issues including dental abscesses and some dentures
- Cancer treatments have many known side effects including changing one’s sense of smell and taste:
- Chemotherapy affects sense of taste for about half the people who receive it
- Radiation can impact the taste buds and the glands that make saliva, and change the sense of smell
- Other medications used for cancer treatment, including antibiotics, morphine and opioids, can change one’s sense of taste
What steps can you take?
Changes to your sense of taste or smell can happen gradually or suddenly. You might notice that:
- Some foods taste different than before
- Some foods are bland
- Everything tastes the same
- You have a metallic taste in your mouth, especially after you eat meat or other protein
If illness, ongoing treatments or medications are interfering with your sense of taste or smell, talk with your doctor. There may be treatments to help clear up a condition or offer alternatives to existing treatments or medications that won’t impact your sense of taste and smell.
Mom’s Meals® brings you taste-tested, home-delivered meals
At Mom's Meals we know that enjoying a delicious meal is one of life’s great pleasures. Our goal is to make it easy to get good nutrition at home. We offer nine condition-specific menus and 60+ delicious menu options prepared by registered dietitians and professional chefs in our USDA-approved kitchens. And you can choose every meal in every delivery, so you’ll get the foods you enjoy most. Check our menus.
