Ageusia: What It Is and How to Eat Well When You Can’t Taste

What causes loss of taste (ageusia)?

Experts don’t fully understand what causes loss of taste in people who get sick with COVID. However, they believe that ageusia is likely caused by inflamed olfactory glands. These glands are responsible for your sense of smell. 

Ageusia can also be a symptom of other medical conditions like:

• Sinus infections

• The flu

• The common cold

• Salivary gland infections

• Diabetes

• Hypothyroidism

• Crohn’s disease

• Hypertension

Loss of taste can also be a side effect of: 

• Chemotherapy

• Poor oral hygiene

• Certain medications, including antibiotics

• Nutritional deficiencies

Loss of smell can also happen naturally as you get older or if you injure your mouth or nose. Because much of our flavor perception is related to our sense of smell, people who lose their ability to taste often experience loss of smell (called anosmia). 

Ageusia symptoms

The main symptom of ageusia is a loss of taste. Sometimes people with ageusia also have a loss of a sense of smell. Having ageusia may lead to other symptoms, including:

• Loss of appetite

• Weight loss

• Mood changes

How and what to eat when you can’t taste anything

If you’ve lost your sense of taste, you’re probably having a hard time eating. Fortunately, there are some tips to help you eat enough healthful foods while you recover:

• Experiment with textures: Try foods that are crunchy, crumbly, chewy, soft, hard. Hard crunchy foods may increase appetite and pleasure. Switching up food textures may also encourage your appetite.

• Add acid: Sour foods like lemon juice may help stimulate saliva production. Saliva protects your taste receptors. You can also try chewing gum to keep up your saliva production. 

• Avoid extra salt and sugar: Too much of either can have negative health consequences. So take this time to limit your sugar and salt intake. You may find that you want less once you regain your sense of taste. 

• Try hot or cold foods: The temperature of food can alter its taste, so try experimenting with chilled, hot, or room temperature food. You might find that one is more appealing than the others.

• Schedule meals: It’s important to nourish your body, especially when you’re sick. Eat what you can at regular intervals. If you need to, set alarms to remind you to eat. 

• Snack small: When you can’t taste, eating a large meal at one time can get boring, and you may have trouble finishing it. To address this, eat small snacks throughout the day.

• Set up a meal plan: Take the time to write down what you’ll eat each day to maintain a balanced and nutritious diet. That way, when it comes time to eat, you won’t have to do much thinking.

• Experiment with environments: Lack of taste can take the joy out of eating. For that reason, watching TV or doing another distracting activity while you eat may be helpful. However, this likely isn’t the best way to eat normally. 

Ageusia treatment

There’s no cure for loss of taste. Sometimes, taste comes back when the underlying problem goes away. For example, if you’re taking a medication that causes a loss of taste, it may be possible to switch to a different medication that doesn’t cause loss of taste.

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Since taste and smell go hand in hand, treating your loss of smell could also improve your sense of taste. Smell training has been used to treat certain smell disorders. It involves smelling strong scents to stimulate your olfactory glands. However, this process could take weeks or months, and some people don’t see results. 

People have been getting creative with trying to get their taste buds to work again. There was a recent viral trend on TikTok that showed users burning an orange and eating it with brown sugar to cure their loss of taste. This tip is likely anecdotal and doesn’t have evidence-based research to back it up. 

How long does loss of taste last?

How long ageusia lasts can vary depending on the cause. After a COVID infection, many people’s sense of taste returns at some point after they recover from the illness. 

One study suggests that people who recover from COVID have an 80% chance of regaining their sense of taste and smell within 6 months. Of those, people ages 40 and younger have a better chance of recovering their sense of taste and smell than those who are older than 40. More studies are needed to understand the length and severity of ageusia in people with COVID. 

Can you prevent ageusia?

Since it’s not fully understood what causes a loss of taste, scientists don’t know how to prevent it. You can reduce your likelihood of developing ageusia by treating conditions you may have, like sinusitis and allergies. Or stopping a medication that causes it, if possible. It’s also important to get vaccinations to reduce your chance of getting COVID. 

Frequently asked questions

Why trust our experts?

Written by:

Shaun Hui, RD, CDN, CDCES

Shaun Hui, RD, CDN, CDCES (he/they) is a dietitian and diabetes care and education specialist based in NYC with over 4 years of experience. Currently, he provides individual and group nutrition counseling at an outpatient HIV practice.

Edited by:

Laurie Tarkan

Laurie Tarkan is a senior health editor for general health and well-being at GoodRx. She has an extensive background in health journalism, and wrote regularly for The New York Times for a decade.

Reviewed by:

Patricia Pinto-Garcia, MD, MPH

Patricia Pinto-Garcia, MD, MPH, is a medical editor at GoodRx. She is a licensed, board-certified pediatrician with more than a decade of experience in academic medicine.

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