Saw an interesting piece of research on the impact of COVID on product reviews. Apparently the COVID symptom of losing your sense of taste and smell has had a discernible impact on product reviews for scented candles. More people posting negative reviews that candles smelt of nothing during 2020. Article here: Scented Candles
There seems to be anecdotal evidence that people with otherwise symptomless COVID were posting bad reviews of both restaurants, takeaways and scented candles, claiming food or drink was bland and tasteless, not realising they had in fact lost their sense of taste or smell.
I just wondered if the team at Huel had more negative feedback on bland taste than normal in 2020? @Tim_Huel ?
It’s a change in sense of taste or smell, not necessarily complete loss. Loss of taste and smell is odd. When I lost mine after my stem cell transplant some tastes went immediately, whilst some took longer. It was the same when it came back. I had a few days when it was first going when everything tasted way too salty. It depends on which taste buds/areas of the tongue are affected.
I was so happy the first time I could taste cheese again.
The amount of patients on the ward who have told me their sense of taste is completely back to normal, until I bring them a cup of tea with sugar and they ask why there’s no sugar in it. One patient told me how happy she was to taste food again, then ate some chocolate and told me it was like eating a block of wax. It’s interesting how it affects people, but these are patients who are recovering from being on ventilators etc so how food tastes isn’t a priority for them at first. Once someone starts complaining to me that their lunch is bland I’m generally pretty happy to hear them notice it!
But it’s definitely a possibility that for people with no other symptoms, losing their taste might be very noticeable at first. And then at the first sign of improvement they could be so used to food tasting of nothing that they think the tiny bit of taste means it’s completely better. The loss of taste and smell can also be a little more sensitive to certain flavours I’ve noticed, and some come back sooner than others.
I did think about this when I said Thai Green Curry H&S was really bland, but had to have a covid test a few days afterwards and it was negative. I think I just had a bad batch as others said they’ve had good bags and bland bags
A negative COVID test does not rule out an infection - it just says that even if you have an infection the viral load should be low enough for you to be not infectious to others.
More interesting than the question about taste and smell is “long COVID syndrome” in general. In some cases people even develop mental or behavioural changes, for example mild forms of dementia, loss of focus, psychiatric conditions or altered personality.
COVID definitely changed and changes a lot…and there is no end in sight…which for sure is also a reason to be depressed…