Anyone else have taste changes ?

Celeriac

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,065
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I started low carbing and eating organic food for my T2 in 2012 and my taste buds have really changed. I hadn't eaten actual sugar since I was a kid but did have sweeteners and I've given them up as being far too sweet.

I can't eat milk chocolate, in fact even 70% cocoa chocolate is inedible for me now and I can taste the sugar in 90% cocoa chocolate. I've almost given up drinking organic whole milk in tea because I can taste the milk sugar. I can taste the lactose in unsalted butter too. Weirdly I can't taste it in yogurt or cheese, however. I had a look at a coeliac website and it seems the higher the fat content a dairy product has, the lower the lactose. So I'm wondering whether the fat masks the taste or whether the lactose is at a level which my tongue just doesn't detect.

It's not just chocolate, milk and butter which taste sweet however. Heinz cream of tomato soup, even the organic one, has this unbearable sweet n salt taste to it, as does their tomato ketchup. Even tinned tomatoes taste sweet now, whereas I used to think them unbearably tart. I can happily munch on a cherry tomato and it seems almost as sweet as a grape.

So my questions are: Has anyone else experienced major changes in taste for better or worse ? Does the fact that my taste buds are very sensitive to sugar mean that my body is hypersensitive to it too ? Is it possible to have a glucose allergy as well as diabetes ? Or are tastebuds supposed to work that well ?
 

ButtterflyLady

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,291
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Acceptance of health treatment claims that are not adequately supported by evidence. I dislike it when people sell ineffective and even harmful alternative health products to exploit the desperation of people with chronic illness.
Yes I started disliking sweet tasting foods after cutting down on carbs. I think it's fairly normal.

I don't think it means your body is hypersensitive to sugar. I've never heard of glucose allergies.

You have simply cur out sugar to the extent that your body is now used to healthy food and your tastebuds let you know if they detect sugar, since they are not used to it now. I think it's a good thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people

DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,375
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Allow yourself to feel normal! Realising how sweet some natural and most processed foods are is inevitable I would have thought if we change the way we eat. I had a taste of tomato ketchup recently and couldn't believe it's the same stuff I used to splosh on my chips. I find plain lemon juice refreshing and atm I'm picking blackcurrants before they turn black. For a touch of sweetness I have double cream.
Just shows how the food industry has nobbled our taste buds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 people

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,642
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. It could be the Metformin. It's one of the known side effects (see the leaflet). I had the metallic taste for 6 months.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

Robbity

Expert
Messages
6,683
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I certainly became much more sensitive to sweet stuff - particularly food with added sugar - when I first started cutting out sugary food (pre low carbing). I used to love honey roast ham but it's far too sweet for me now. Low carbing also has changed the way food tastes for me, and I agree with @CatLadyNZ and @DeejayR - it's most likely due to re-educated taste buds.

Robbity
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people

Celeriac

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,065
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Feeling somewhat relieves thanks X No not ever had a metallic taste from Metformin, just the rear end thankfully not recently
 

sterling

Well-Known Member
Messages
159
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I now find mouthwash sweet and sickly. I am trying to find a mouthwash not loaded with sweeteners.

I do not even like sweet apples anymore. I go for Granny Smiths.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

dawnmc

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,431
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Non-insulin injectable medication (incretin mimetics)
I too cant tolerate the sickly taste of sweet stuff. If you eat any wheat you will feel the bloat too. Sarakan make an unsweetened mouthwash, you can buy it online, or make your own, loads of online recipes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

Celeriac

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,065
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Canderel has a wheaty taste to me, can't bear it. I had a mouthful of new potato earlier this year and that tasted awful to me too. Toothpaste wise I alternate between Euthymol, Corsodyl and Weleda salt toothpaste - basically whichever I can find.
 
Messages
6,107
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I found that vegetables tasted better than I ever remembered them (apart from lettuce which never did) and especially the ones I grow in the garden. I can smell the sugar when anywhere near the cake aisle in the supermarket and it is not pleasant.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5 people

Munkki

Well-Known Member
Messages
527
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
It is the same for me too. I enjoy real food much more and find sweets taste very sweet now, especially the processed ones, they taste not only sweet, but awfully artificial :yuck: I am happily satisfied with some raw cacao and/or cinnamon in my yogurt or porridge, maybe a tiny amount of sweetener. I need to make sure that if I try something sweet, I get the taste after one tablespoon. Anything more than that is just sweet, just like other people react to chili (against which I am quite desensitised).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

Robbity

Expert
Messages
6,683
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
My father (a non diabetic) never took sugar in his tea, and used to be able to taste it if we ever gave him a cup stirred with a spoon that we'd used to stir a sugary cup. He used to eat cakes and chocolate quite happily though!

Robbity
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people