Nutrition and cancer

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Managing eating problems during treatment - IV

Changes in taste or smell

Your sense of taste and smell can change during cancer treatment. When your taste buds don’t seem right:

* Rinse your mouth before and after eating to help clear your taste buds. Club soda or a solution of 2 mL (½ teaspoon) of salt mixed with 250 mL (1 cup of water may help.

* Try foods or beverages that are different than the ones you usually eat.

* Serve foods cold or at room temperature to reduce strong tastes and smells.

* Try using plastic cutlery and glass cooking pots, if foods taste metallic.

* Season foods with onion, garlic, chili powder, basil, oregano, rosemary, tarragon, barbecue sauce, mustard, ketchup, or mint. Seasonings may make the foods taste better to you. Unless you have a sore mouth, tart flavours from lemons and other citrus fruit, vinegar, and pickled foods may also be helpful.

* Add sugar to increase the sweet taste of foods or to decrease the salty, bitter, or acid taste of other foods.

* Suck on sugarless lemon candies, mints, or chew gum, which can help get rid of unpleasant tastes that remain after eating.

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