I just love it when my simple logic is validated by accredited research. In attempting to come up with palatable food for a friend who is losing weight due to the side effect from chemotherapy of a metallic sense of smell and taste, I tried to follow a logical pattern from experience, knowledge, to a wild guess perhaps. Imagine the taste of metal: neither saltiness nor sweetness can overcome it. But what I thought might be compatible, thus not creating oral and olfactory chaos, was lemon. I also felt that since the smell of food stimulates the appetite, the lack thereof would inhibit the nausea produced by the special circumstances of this condition, so therefore, don’t serve the meal steaming hot and if possible, cook it elsewhere. We’re trying it now.
Curious, I checked out the American Cancer Society Website and found the same suggestions, as well as this: Use plastic utensils.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Susan-
I can’t remember where I read it, but I did read somewhere that because the treatments usually cause immediate and unpleasant digestive reaction, it is best not to eat any foods that you want to be able to enjoy afterwards right before treatment. The idea is that people can’t help but to connect the food with the feeling and will tend to be repulsed by that same food the next time they are presented with it, even though they logically know that it was the chemo that caused the bad response. So, I wanted to throw that out there to you as a suggestion that your friend make a point of not sitting down to one of the few foods that may be found not to make him or her sick as the last thing eaten before treatment as this may cause an aversion. The alternative? And I swear that I am not making this up, some experts suggest eating something that you generally don’t care to enjoy anyway (spinach, liver, whatever).
Best wishes for your friend, I will keep them in my thoughts.
Deb
Thank you, Deb; that’s not something I thought about but it does indeed make perfect sense. I know that to this very day I cannot tolerate rum. My mother used to put in in hot tea for me whenever cramps or colds set in. While I remember it as soothing (and sedative) at the time, all these many decades later I still cannot stand the smell of it! Thanks for sharing. Thanks for caring.