Why can't we taste food properly when we have a cold?

@pimagro24 (1046)
Thailand
October 30, 2008 9:08am CST
Why can't we taste food properly when we have a cold?
3 people like this
4 responses
@winzpc (2354)
• Indonesia
30 Oct 08
I think it because our tongue sense isn't working properly. Our sense is covered by the liquid that make the stimulus isn't properly deliver to our brain. I just get cold yesterday and today I have recover from my cold and still can't taste properly. keep post happy myLotting...
@underdogtoo (9579)
• Philippines
30 Oct 08
A cold is a nasty thing and it is not just taste that suffers, it is also smell and we cannot breathe so well. One of my workers had a cold and I told him to rest. Cheers!!
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
30 Oct 08
At least half of our sense of taste is actually smell. Our tongue really has a quite limited range of sensations - sweet, salty, sour, bitter and hot (as in chillis or garlic). The rest of the things that make food enjoyable are sensed by the nose (or rather, in the sinuses). When we have a cold, the mucous membranes in the nose are swollen and inflamed and our sense of smell is lost, so we can only taste the very basic attributes of food.
• United States
30 Oct 08
your sense of smell has a lot to do with the receptors for taste. it seems like if you don't have both,something's "off".a stuffed up nose will pretty much make every thing taste like nothing.