Do you enjoy food? Is eating a flavorful dish or enjoying a new type of wine or beer one of the best things in life? If so, then you’ll want to make sure you can keep enjoying food by curbing some bad habits and stay away from staying in a health center.
Fast Food
Fast food is bad for you in many ways, but one of them is how it affects your sense of taste. It doesn’t literally affect your taste buds, but it does affect the way your brain processes tastes. It causes your brain to get used to higher levels of fat and salt, which can alter your pleasure sensations at the actual flavor of food.
Smoking and Chewing Tobacco
Smoking and chewing tobacco are notoriously bad for your sense of taste. Smoking in particular is terrible for your sense of smell, which is where most of the subtle sensations of taste come from. It paralyzes nasal cilia, which are responsible for moving mucus in the nose, and can lead to sinus infections. It also coats your tongue and nasal passages with tar, dulling your ability to taste.
Harsh Cleaning Chemicals
If you do a lot of cleaning around your home using chemicals, you may be setting yourself up for diminished sense of taste. These chemicals can damage your sense of smell, especially if you use them regularly in unventilated areas. Try to use these chemicals less frequently and improve ventilation in bathrooms and other areas where you use them.
Obesity
Obesity changes your body’s chemistry. The effects are felt at all levels, from your brain to your sense of smell to your actual tongue’s ability to taste. Obesity may make it harder for you to taste sweets, fats, and other compounds, and, like fast food, mean that you need more of them to create the positive sensations that come from them. As a result, you may crave sweets and fats more often, which can make it hard to control your diet and lose weight.
Alcohol
Alcohol is an anesthetic, and it can have an anesthetizing effect on your tongue as well. While this won’t affect the chemical receptors in your tongue, it does affect their texture receptors. Since many foods have an important textural component, you may be unhappy with the way things taste after a couple drinks–or you may be able to eat things where texture had been a barrier before.
Dentures
Dentures can dull your sense of taste. In addition to the nose and tongue, your upper palate plays an important role in taste, though how important this role is depends on the individual. Upper dentures can diminish your sense of taste because they cover the upper palate. The problem can be worsened if your dentures fit poorly or aren’t cleaned properly. For some people, moving from dentures to dental implants may be recommended to restore your sense of taste.
Tooth Infection
A tooth infection can affect your sense of taste directly and through your sense of smell. In an infection, bacteria are reproducing in your mouth, and often anaerobic bacteria (those that like an oxygen-poor environment and often metabolize sulfur instead) are the ones going wild and you’ll definitely undergo a severe Huntington Beach pain management. You may experience a persistent bad taste in your mouth.
Infection may also spread to your sinus cavities, causing them to be full of mucus, sore, inflamed, and unable to play their role in smell and taste.
For the Love of Food
If you’re a person who loves cooking and enjoying delicious meals, it’s important to take steps to protect your sense of taste. Quit smoking, cut down on fast food, keep your weight under control, and see your dentist regularly to make sure you don’t have infections or poorly fitting dentures.
Harbour Health Center
https://www.harbourhealthdc.com/
16831 1/2 Algonquin St
Huntington Beach, CA 92649