As someone who has to constantly fight the battle of the bulge, I am, of course, always looking for an easy way to lose weight. I don’t stop eating when I’m full because I love the taste. I started thinking: what if food didn’t taste as good, or had no taste? Many years ago, when I used to get really depressed, food seemed to have no flavor, and I didn’t eat as much and I lost weight. So my question is: why can’t the taste buds be altered or destroyed as a means of weight control? (And I realize the olfactory senses play a part in the sense of taste.) BTW, I got nothing when I googled and did a search here.
I read that people who lose their sense of taste/smell gain weight because they keep trying to experience taste. So I wouldn’t try it.
On the other hand, my dad (who is undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma) has said that the meds he is on make everything sweet and sugary taste like crap. Since a good percentage of his calories pre-illness derived from milkshakes, ice cream, chocolate, and donuts, he has lost a lot of weight in the last year or so.
I haven’t been able to smell since I was 5 years old. I fell off of a set of cellar stairs and landed head-first on the floor, and got a dent in my forehead to show for it. Other than the anosmia (loss of smell), there were no other changes we (my familiy and I) noticed. I was 13 before we figured out I couldn’t smell. I’m “in the area of” 30 now.
In the time right after I whacked my head, however, what I liked to eat changed very suddenly. I used to love avacados, seafood, and liver. It was like a switch was thrown and I didn’t like those foods anymore. I still don’t. My wife says that I prefer foods for their texture and not their taste. I can’t get enough of grilled cheese sandwiches and french toast, thats’s apparently the texture I enjoy most. I love to have sugary-type food for deserts, nothing fancy. I’m a spice wimp, any hint of spicyness is too much for me. I can’t stand to drink alcohol, even the mixed fruity drinks. Let me assure you, though, my lack of smell has not affected my appetite. I still eat waayyy more than I should.
On the down side, I can’t tell if milk has gone bad (unless it’s lumpy). I can’t smell natural gas leaks or smoke (tough in my career, but I can work around it). I can’t tell if meat is rancid. I don’t know if clothes have crossed the need-to-be-washed threshold. I’m in the habit of taking more showers than the average person since I can’t tell if I stink. Think of how much of the world your nose tells you about, I don’t have that benefit. Granted, I also can’t smell some of the nasty stuff that people go “ick” over, so there’s a benefit on that side of the coin.
Lucklily, my wife can tell what the folks four houses down the street are having for supper solely on smell, so I can depend on her to nudge me when something is awry.
Would it not be easier just to make the food taste like crap?
Personally, taste doesn’t really affect how much I eat. Well, let me rephrase that: if I know I like the taste of something, even if I can’t taste it I still eat it because I know it’d be good if I was capable of tasting it. This seems like a really weird thing to say, but I have a reason for it: I often get this unpleasant bitter taste in my mouth that obscures the flavour of whatever I’m eating. Even though I hate bitter things, I still eat the food because I know it’s not the food that’s bad, it’s just the stupid taste in my mouth.
However, this is my personal experience. If your personal experience tells you that you’d quit eating if you couldn’t taste, maybe cutting off your sense of taste would be a viable option for you, although I don’t know if you could make it temporary and I can’t imagine why you’d want it to be permanent.
Logic for the win!
As you said, the sense of smell is a large part of our experience of taste. So instead of trying to screw around with your tongue, why not just put on a swimming nose clip while eating, and see if that has any beneficial effect? Simple, cheap, reversible. (Although you may get some looks if you do it at a restaurant.)
Surely if you’re aware that you’re full but crave the taste, you can simply chew the food, enjoy the flavour and then spit it out? Okay, not so practical when you’re eating out, but no problem at home and you don’t have to screw with your tongue.
Personally I don’t see how people manage to keep on eating when they feel full, it feels so uncomfortable to me that food just loses its appeal immediately once I feel marginally full.
Make the food taste like crap? Well, for one thing, I have to cook for hubby too, and I don’t think he’d appreciate that. Also, I’m not much of a cook, and we’re both lazy, so we eat a lot of prepared foods, order pizza, and eat out two to three times a week. Another factor is that I hate to waste food. If hubby leaves food on his plate (depending on what it is), I usually finish it off. I wasn’t deprived of food as a child; if anything, we always had too much food and I guess that’s part of the problem. I guess I’d rather have my sense of taste and smell when you consider the disadvantages. Thanks everyone for your input.
Chewing and spitting is an eating disorder. It sounds like the OP already has a disordered relationship with food.
So i recently came down with Bell’s Palsy and as such have contracted Hypo-ageusia. the loss of taste completely is simply ageusia the hypo meaning i can still taste at least one thing(HOORAY FOR CHOCOLATE!!!). personally i never thought losing taste would bother me but when food starts to feel like rubber and plastic you tend to eat less. after about two weeks i went back to my doctor and he told me that i now have cachexia, a weight loss disorder from simply eating too little. after a certain point your stomach shrinks and you tend to get full faster and overeating can be painful at first so it helps to stop or youll regret it. if you want to try a temporary fix i would say starve yourself for a day then eat one meal then starve yourself for another day then eat two meals then starve yourself again for another day then start eating normally just in smaller portions. i know it sounds drastic when you go throwing the “starve” word around but think of it more like fasting for weight control and limiting your portion intake and it all sounds fine. now realistically your stomach should shrink but youll want to keep your calories and nutrition up, so nuts(peanut butter) or nutrition shakes(i like equates chocolate) are really good ways to kinda fill up those slots. ah and as a sort of necessity i must say; I have been found under a court of law to be legally insane, i have passed collage, i am quite smart, and i can not be taking serious without a grain of salt. Do all things at the risk of thine own self.