Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Why you cant taste things when you have a cold

Came up with this idea because right now I have the flu and feel like someone has death-gripped my sinuses..

You don't exactly taste with your tongue, 90% of taste comes from smell!

Wait.. what?!


You read it right, the piece of chocolate you're eating right now, you can mainly taste it because of your smell.

Your nose is directly linked to your mouth.

Don't believe me? Try breathing out with your mouth and in through your nose, or the other way round if you like.

You can't can you? This is because it's all one passage, you can't have air flowing in one way and also the other, it's just not gonna' happen!

The lack of taste (or should I say smell)


You'll notice that you have a blocked nose.

Maybe you haven't got a cold, maybe you just have a gigantic bogey clogging your nose (I hope you don't).

But lets assume you do have a cold, here's what's up. (we'll save the other one for another time..)

Blocked nose


This is what your WBC's are fighting
No matter how many times you blow your nose, it doesn't help, that's because it's not the mucus in your nose blocking it, it's your inflamed nasal passages.

This is caused by the histamine produced by white blood cells when they try to take out the virus by phagocytosis.

Now when you add restricted aromas to delicious food, you can't take in the smell. Hence you can't taste it.

And if you're like me and happen to have a lovely helping of lamb for dinner but can't taste it, then I pity for you too.


A quick way to clear your blocked nose

  1. Pinch your nose, and nod up and down while you're holding it
  2. let and go and breathe through your nose slowly, repeat
  3. and about 2-3 minutes of doing this you should be clear for a while.


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