Common Cold and Loss of Taste and Smell

While suffering from a seasonal flu, my biggest trouble is that I cannot get the taste of food that I eat, a condition referred to as ageusia. Sense of smell has also taken a break, the condition is called anosmia, and it is giving me a kind of mixed feeling. Those same food whose aroma and flavour used to fill the nostrils and induced craving apatite, they do not appealing any more.  Have you ever wondered why our taste and smell go awry during sickness, I did!

My bout of rationality returned with a likely reason that probably nature has designed it in this way that during sickness one does not get overindulgent. With likelihood of slowed digestive fire during sickness, eating heavy meals would complicate the body’s healing capacity. This is the reason that one suffering from such sickness is advised light meal and high amount of liquid diet. Although patients prefer to consume hot and spicy soup during mealtime or otherwise.

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But what could be the science behind this. It appears that loss of taste and smell during sickness has to do with how mucous has occupied the taste buds and smell receptors. Actually, our taste buds located on the tongue help us in sensing only four types of flavours that is salty, sweet, bitter and sour. But, nearly 75% of our sense of taste comes from our sense of smell. It has been found that the tiny molecules of ‘odour’ when interact with ‘smell receptors’ in the nasal cavity that produces the perception of taste.

As we chew the food item the aerosol generated in mouth gets filled with odour particles and it goes to the top of the nasal cavity where smell receptors interact with these odour particles and generate the taste of the food.

During common cold, flu, bacterial sinus infection, and other condition when a thick mucus layer covers the smell receptors in the nasal cavity, our sense of smell ceases and so does our taste.

Besides the mucus, virus which directly infect the nasal epithelial cells, they take over the host cell machinery and starts synthesizing their own DNAs and proteins. In this 'coup', the synthesis of nasal epithelium’s own proteins including ‘smell receptors’ suffers and also the integrity of these cells is lost leading to apoptosis and cell death. This may be seen some times as ‘bloody’ nasal discharge. Due to these factors the smell capacity and thus sense of taste become deficient for the duration till mucus thickness is decreased and the new epithelium with odour receptors replaces the dead cells.

The remedy? Steam may help loosen the mucus. Soup with herbal mix including ginger, garlic, mint and other healthy concoction with soothe the nasal passage and give some respite.

So, here comes my cup of soup, Cheers to taste buds, I know it’s not your fault.

Diet and Disease

What we eat affects how we live - disease free or with diseases. Several of the scientific research and clinical & epidemiological studies warn us about the ill effects of artificial, over-cooked, fried and so called fast food. Yet rarely such information impact our food choices or eating habit.

The choices we make with what to fill our platter does not depend on a logical and well thought out decision making process. Most of the times immediate urge to sooth taste buds leads to bad choices. On other occasions real limitations of availability of healthy options affects our choices. In any case we end up filling our tummies with so called junk food, which we know will harm us.

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We all know that eating green vegetables, colorful, seasonal and fresh fruits, and home prepared healthy meals are good choices. But most of us opt for calorie loaded, frozen, preservative added and overcooked meals on some pretext. We spend more or less equal amount of time and money in procuring either types of food items but if only a little thinking about long-term effects of these choices is practiced, we can save ourselves from many health problems. 

Scientific studies indicate that junk food items affect and alter physiology of our body cells drastically and propel them towards a state where only disease can develop. The high calorie besides being stored in body as increased weight, also fires the mitochondria excessively which leaks many highly reactive molecules called free radicals that destroy the basic fabric of our cells, the proteins, DNA and other molecules. These damages are initially small and do not cause major problems. With time, however, they accumulate and till then it becomes too late and managing the after effect becomes difficult, costly and some times irreversible. 

Image curtsy: tdmu.edu.ua

The plants from where we derive most of our food supply including cereals, vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices possess many molecules, which evolved simultaneously with our own evolution. The prehistoric day-to-day interaction and co-evolution has resulted in a perfect bio-compatibility  of these molecules with our body cells and their functions. It provide certain definite advantages compared to drastically modified artificial meals which contain many synthetic chemicals.

The plant derived bio-molecules have been shown to be effective in preventing and/or treating a number of pathological conditions. For example, studies show that Lycopene, a molecule from tomato, could prevent heart diseases, strokes and even prostrate cancer in humans.  The examples of Turmeric derived curcumin, ginger, garlic,  and some other spices have filled the scientific literature. In all societies and cultures such examples are in plenty, and we just need to take note of them and make conscious decisions regarding what we bring to our plates.

image curtsy: greennewyorkersmeetup.blogspot. in

We must realize that wrong choices and modern food habit is creating consistent problems for our own health leading to increased incidence of metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and Alzheimer disease among others. An intelligent choice made once creates opportunity for repeat of similar choices, and same is true if one makes bad choices.

Therefore, our goal must be to eat healthy, live healthy and have a long and disease free life. This indeed is a life long investment to have a graceful aging without major disease and of course bitter pills. The choice is ours and so does the outcome :)