9 Simple Things to Help Food Go From Bland to Grand
Altered tastes can be a side effect of some cancer treatments. People who experience this side effect often describe as foods tasting blander than normal, like cardboard or metallic. Here are some helpful hints to help improve the flavor of your foods:
• Try eating foods that are already bland, such as potatoes, pastas, oatmeal or pancakes.
• Consider using an acid to improve the flavor of your foods. Lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar can all help.
• Add your favorite fresh fruit to yogurt, cottage cheese, ice cream, or meats/chicken/fish to improve their flavor.
• If foods are tasting metallic, try using plastic silverware instead of metal silverware.
• Make a homemade mouth rinse of baking soda, salt, and warm water. Swish and spit several times per day.
• Suck on sugar-free hard candies such as lemonheads, peppermints or root beer barrels if the bad taste lingers in your mouth throughout the day.
• If foods taste too salty, bitter or sour, try adding a little bit of an artificial sweetener or sugar. A little sweetness can help improve taste.
• If foods taste too sour, a fruit called miracle fruit can change the flavor from being sour to sweet. These fruits are expensive and difficult to find, though there are tablets of these fruits available from online retailers.
• Have three or four small servings of different foods on your plate. Take a few bites of one food, and when you get tired of it, try the next one.
