Without the ability to taste sweet flavors your cravings for those kinds of foods wane allowing you to readjust to healthy flavors.
- notes -
Works like an anesthetic. Lasts a day.-- SpocksEyebrow, May 09 2005 Permanent Dieting Aid Permanent_20Dieting_20AidThis idea sounds like a variant on the one linked, though I prefer the temporary nature, and the specificity (sweetness) of this one... [zen_tom, May 09 2005] FDA: zicam linked to loss of sense of smell http://www.fda.gov/...ments/ucm167065.htmThe recall that redpandainventor is referring to. [jutta, Jun 17 2009] Miracle fruit http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Miracle_fruitI wonder if the opposite approach might work better. [tatterdemalion, Jun 18 2009] I have little trust in anything that dulls the senses. How long is temporary meant to be?-- hidden truths, May 09 2005 Sounds like anbesol.-- contracts, May 09 2005 Why have this when you can have mind altering drugs? You can hear tastes instead of taste tastes (ok, that was warped, sorry).
Wouldn't people just crave to takes sweet sour and everything between tastes properly?-- froglet, May 09 2005 What is that new taste that is all the rage? It's got some japanese name that translates into "the fifth taste". Hmmm-- SpocksEyebrow, May 09 2005 Umami - it's supposed to be a sort of beefy, yeasty, salivary, savoury, enzymy, mushroomy, seaweedy kind of yummy, monosodium glutomatey kind of taste.-- zen_tom, May 09 2005 It's the taste of amino acids, so it comes out in steak and eggs mainly. Try thinking about the similarities, and you can see what I mean. The other tastes are sweet, salt, sour and bitter (spicy and minty are just temperature stimulators).
Personally, I don't like the idea. Foods are made up of a combination of lots of flavours, so taking one out would probably make everything taste different. And not being able to taste something might not make me stop eating it. Chocolate would still give you the sugar/caffeine/dopamine rush even without the taste.-- dbmag9, Jan 10 2006 Mmmmmm, theobromides.-- normzone, Jan 10 2006 mmmmmmm, blind dogs...-- shapu, Jan 10 2006 A friend of mine lost the ability to taste anything for about a month due to a stroke. He's never gained as much weight before or since as he gained in that month.
A lot of research has suggested that being unable to taste food makes the eating experience less satisfying, and eating MORE to compensate may be the typical result.-- ye_river_xiv, Apr 23 2009 Interesting! Maybe there should be diets that consist in overspicing and -salting everything...
I thought people crave sweet foods partially because those foods are easily metabolized. The sweetness happens to be the sensation we associate with that boosted metabolism, but it's not the final goal.-- jutta, Apr 24 2009 I keep reading this as the Devastating pill.-- phundug, Apr 24 2009 If this only lasts for a day, it's simply not going to work. Under what circumstances is someone going to say "Oooh - I really want chocolate today. I'll take this pill to make it taste less good."?
For this to work, it would have to be a pill that you could take during moments of willpower and which would continue to act during those long and frequent periods of weakness.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 24 2009 and for permanent results just rub zicam on your tongue, it removes smell why not taste-- redpandainventor, Jun 17 2009 //overspicing and -salting everything...// I would suggest almost the opposite. Eating simple unblended foods is an excellent way to reduce overeating. If you crave cinnamon suck on some cinnamon bark. If you crave capsicums (peppers) start munching capsicums until they become less appealing. That way you will become satisfied more quicky, and avoid loading up on Trojan ingredients that you don't need. As a bonus, your cravings have a better chance of becoming finely tuned to what your body needs most.
In the same spirit I don't approve of this idea. Well trained and accurate taste is better than artificially dulled taste.-- spidermother, Jun 18 2009 random, halfbakery