Try high-protein foods that may taste better cold or at room temperature. Examples include cheese or cottage cheese plates; macaroni salads with shrimp, ham or cheese; tuna, egg, ham or chicken salad; cold meat or luncheon meat sandwiches; or cold salmon.
Rinse your mouth with fruit juice, wine, tea, ginger ale, club soda, or salted water before eating. This will help clear your taste buds.
Radiation therapy
The taste changes begin early, often during the first 2 weeks of treatment. They are usually most noticeable about 2 months after treatment begins. The changes will be different for each person, but changes in the taste of salty and bitter foods are usually more noticeable than for sweet foods.
Taste changes caused by radiation treatment usually start to improve 3 weeks to 2 months after treatment ends. Taste changes may continue to improve for about a year. If salivary glands are harmed, then the sense of taste may not fully return to the way it was before treatment.
Foods to try if nothing tastes good:
Try fruit popsicles in various flavors. Fruit sorbet or sherbet is also an idea. Experiment with spices and herbs. Instead of adding more salt to food to perk up the taste, try adding dried basil, oregano, or a lemon-pepper seasoning.
With mineral or vitamin deficiencies, simply supplementing with a multi- or specific vitamin (B12, B-complex, and zinc) may be helpful. If due to medications, switching to a different medication may help restore a normal sense of taste.
If there's a metallic taste, sometimes a little sweetener, like maple syrup, can help,” Katz said. “If foods taste too sweet, you can add drops of lemon or lime until that's muted. If it tastes too salty, then ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice can erase that. If it's too bitter, you have to add a little bit of sweet.
Most side effects generally go away within a few weeks to 2 months of finishing treatment. But some side effects may continue after treatment is over because it takes time for healthy cells to recover from the effects of radiation therapy. Late side effects can happen months or years after treatment.
The American Cancer Society recommends adult cancer survivors exercise for at least 150 to 300 minutes a week. Try to include strength training at least two days a week, with at least one day off in between. As you recover and adjust, you might find that more exercise makes you feel even better.
Since taste buds regenerate by themselves every couple of weeks, some taste issues will repair themselves. If you keep having taste issues, you can fix or manage them by finding the root cause.
Drink Plenty Of Liquids
Drinking lots of water is especially important if you experience diarrhea during radiation therapy. “Good hydration flushes toxins out of the body and reduces treatment side effects such as nausea, weakness, bowel changes, and fatigue,” says Komar.
Citrus fruits, fruit juices, smoothies, or sorbets can help activate taste buds and eliminate altered taste. Additionally, adding orange, lemon or lime juice to foods can help disguise metallic taste in your mouth and make food more palatable.
Metallic taste is especially common in patients who receive radiation on the neck and head region. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause damage to the cells in the oral cavity which can then result in metallic taste (dysgeusia). The cells in normal taste buds regenerate every 10 days.
Powerfully aromatic and flavorful foods like ginger, peppermint and peanut butter can help you get your sense of smell and taste back. So can strongly-scented essential oils.
Orally administered zinc has been shown to directly stimulate food intake via neuropeptide in the hypothalamus. Therefore, zinc administration may potentially be used to treat taste disorders, as well as several other diseases by stimulating feeding.
About half of people with a B12 deficiency lose papillae—tiny, taste bud-containing bumps. As a result, your tongue may feel sore, and your sense of taste may wilt, making even spicy fare seem bland. A lack of B12 can deteriorate nerve cells, leading to a pins-and-needles sensation in your hands and feet.
The American Cancer Society recommends eating at least 2½ cups of vegetables and fruits each day, limiting red and processed meats, and choosing whole-grain instead of refined-grain foods. A healthy breakfast focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, and lean proteins.
You may also want to avoid certain fruits based on your symptoms. For example, citrus fruits may irritate mouth sores and worsen the feeling of dry mouth. Lastly, whole fruits like apples, apricots, and pears are hard for some people with cancer to eat due to mouth sores, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, or nausea.
If you are currently losing weight on cancer treatment, ice cream can be an easy way to get more calories in less food, as long as you don't have any sensitivity to cold foods. If you have a sore mouth or throat, ice cream may be one of the few foods that can soothe the discomfort.