A really bright light can make me blind. A really loud noise can make me deaf. Can a really strong flavour break my taste buds? Or a strong odour break my sense of smell?
A really bright light permanently damages your eyes. So a really strong acid could permanently damage your tongue.
Hydrogen sulfide deadens the sense of smell. You can smell it in low concentrations, but not in high concentrations. So it is quite a dangerous gas.
Smoking will make you less sensitive to taste. Still too early to tell on vapes.
Vapes kinda work in a similar fashion to foods. I remember having to switch from vanilla, because it was making my coffee taste like nothing.
For the curious, I removed nicotine from my diet last February. About 28 years, total.
Covid
Not technically - it deadens your sense of smell, which affects your sense of taste.
I would say chili peppers can do that, though.
Chewing a pink peppercorn can KO your ability to taste for like 15 minutes or so, in my experience. Working with ammonia for a little while will also nuke your ability to smell for a while, which is a big part of taste.
Yes, Various injuries and diseases can do that.
And taste too.
Strong mint can absolutely knock out other flavors for a time.
I also knew a guy who had cancer (thyroid? Don’t quote me on that,) that the treatment knocked out his sense of taste. Everything except flour.
Or a strong odour break my sense of smell?
I’ve accidentally knocked out my sense of smell with a bathroom cleaner before. Not enough ventilation while I was scrubbing things, I guess. Came back later in the day, thankfully, but was quite disturbing. I don’t recommend it.
Can a really strong flavour break my taste buds?
Not sure exactly about that, but there are compounds that will mess with your sense of taste significantly. e.g. there’s a fruit that makes sour things taste sweet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum
There’s a specific chemical extract from some berry that makes EVERYTHING taste like Splenda. You can bite into a lemon and it will taste sweet. Lasts a few minutes, fun novelty
I didn’t find that everything was sweet. Most things tasted normal. Beer tasted oddly sweet, citrus was very sweet, but almost everything we ate at hotpot tasted the same. Maybe spicy things were less spicy.
It makes sour taste sweet. Not everything
Ghost peppers. Jus munch one piece (don’t do it). It will mess up your flavour on the first bite and wish for the sweet release of death (won’t come I think) for a long time after.
oh yeah, you can totally change your sense of taste of sweet and salty
remove either of these for several weeks and then slowly bring them back and you will find you are far more sensitive to them than previously.
the addiction to high level sweet taste is why dieting is so hard for so many and why sugar substitutes are targetted as an option.
Corsodyl mouthwash, according to my dentist, is not supposed to be used every day because it can permanently alter your sense of taste. Corsodyl specifically.
Thats only 1 dentist though you’d have to ask the other 9 to know for sure.
My hygienist told me recent studies say mouthwash isn’t all that good for you anyway because it kills the good germs too.
Smoke or go into space.
When i smoke too much weed - like as a lifestyle i mean, over the course of months - my sense of smell and thus most of taste pretty much disappears. I had to take a break from being a cupcake taster for an acquaintance because i could not possibly provide useful feedback.
Apparently low-gravity changes how mucus settles (iirc) in such a way that humans have reduced smell and taste in space. Astronauts always want hotsauce in part because everything tastes blander in space.
I’ve. uh. never heard this about weed. is this common? or like a “you” thing? asking for a friend
Smokers (of cigarettes) also dull their sense of smell so i presume it’s not just a me thing. Possibly it’s stronger for me for some reason like allergies or genetics or some such.
Probably smoking, vaping doesn’t have that problem we get heavy metals instead.
One flavor is just detecting acid (sour), and so a strong enough sour flavor would chemically destroy your taste buds by basically dissolving them. I think this is fairly similar to the fact that too bright a light will damage the light detection in your eye. I’m not sure about any others tastes or smells though.
Ahh so that’s what happens with the old Warheads
I want the old ones back lol. The new ones are sour for like 2 seconds
If you eat something too hot without properly letting it cool, you’ll burn your tongue and won’t taste anything for days
