Taste & nutrition

​​ That your taste can change with chemotherapy is a side effect that is not so well known. There are different ways in which your taste can be affected.

• due to a metal taste in your mouth everything tastes different
• due to loss of taste, nothing tastes as you would expect
• You don't even want to try it because of the nausea of ​​the smell of food, of hypersensitivity for some tastes
  
• because your mouth feel changes, you 'taste' differently and the texture of your food suddenly becomes important

Logically, this affects your appetite, so you tend to eat less. While good nutrition is important to keep on weight and contribute to your recovery!

Discover your 'new' taste.

Experiment with all kinds of small snacks and snacks to discover what you do like during chemo. Try not only different flavors, but especially the following.

• Try (the same) food at different temperatures. It is known that lukewarm or cold-served dishes now taste better. Also think of dishes that you would normally eat hot!

• First think about what texture you want, and look for a dish or snack with it. For example, food can be airy, crispy, liquid or firm. Porridge has a very different mouthfeel compared with bread. Green peas feel different in your mouth than cooked spinach. First try to find out what kind of mouthfeel you are up to.

• A meal does not have to consist of several dishes. You do not have to start from what you are used to, when it comes to food you can turn everything upside down. Is evening food standard in your head as a combination of 3; for example potatoes, meat, vegetables? The more types of food you combine in one meal, the greater the chance that there will be something that disappoints and spontaneously takes away your appetite. Eat one type of food at a time; for example a plate of soft spiral paste without anything and an hour later the accompanying sauce. Eat different types of food, but not all at the same time. Keep it simple.
  

You can forget about mealtimes.

Eat often and when you are hungry, without looking at the clock or it is 'dinner time'. Take every moment you feel like eating something. Appetite often decreases during the day. Therefore, make your breakfast the most nutritious, followed by protein and calorie-rich snacks and small dishes / meals. And make the food look tasty.