Stop the Struggle When Chemo Makes Food Taste Like Metal
Chemotherapy can change how foods taste, sometimes making them metallic, bitter, or bland. These changes (called dysgeusia) can make eating challenging, but certain foods and preparation strategies can help you maintain good nutrition and enjoy meals again.
Learn practical tips, from plastic utensils to cold foods, to manage your palate and restore your appetite.
In this Episode:
- 01:50 – A Man on the Inside, New Season
- 04:23 – Advice from a 90-year Old on Longevity
- 08:18 – Changes in Smell and Taste Perception with Chemotherapy
- 11:01 – Strategies to find Foods that Taste Good with Taste Changes
- 22:41 – Now I Have to Learn to Fly Solo – Greg, Who Lost His Wife to Alzheimer’s
- 25:48 – Outro
The Chemo Taste Struggle Is Real!
What happens when food stops tasting like food? For many people receiving chemotherapy, one of the most frustrating side effects is that everything tastes wrong. Meals that once brought joy can suddenly taste metallic, bitter, or bland.
In this episode, we explore why chemotherapy changes taste and smell, how it impacts nutrition and emotional well-being, and what you can do to find flavor again. From surprising foods that still taste good to creative meal ideas that help you keep eating, you’ll learn practical ways to nourish your body and reclaim one of life’s simplest pleasures.
Listen and share this episode with someone navigating cancer treatment, because even when food doesn’t taste right, you still deserve nourishment and joy.
What Are Chemo Taste Changes (Dysgeusia)?
Changes in taste perception is defined as a decreased or changed perception of the sense of taste, an unpleasant change of taste sensation, or a distortion of the taste feeling or sensation. With chemotherapy this is commonly a bitter or metallic taste.
How Common are Chemo Taste Changes?
A frequent cause of distress for people living with cancer and taking chemotherapy treatment are changes in how food tastes. Changes in taste are very common and can be noticed in 45%–84% of people who are undergoing chemotherapy; smell changes occur in 5%–60% of people.
What Causes Taste Changes with Chemotherapy?
The reasons for taste issues are a blend of a few different reasons. These include: the disappearance of taste buds; disfunction of the salivary glands prompting the failure of taste elements to enter the taste pores, direct harm to the taste receptors or to the nervous system.
Helpful Tips:
- Eat smaller, frequent meals every 2–3 hours
- Try new recipes—taste preferences can shift
- Avoid strong food odors if they cause nausea (serve foods cold)
- Maintain oral hygiene—brush gently and rinse after meals
Listen to the show for specific ways to manage taste loss during treatment for cancer
Related Episodes:
- S6E22: Mucositis with Cancer Treatment: What it is and How You can Prevent It
- S6E5: Understanding Cancer Treatment Options: Chemotherapy – learn why chemotherapy causes side effects
- S6E28: Dehydration During Cancer Treatment: The Threat No One Talks About
- All Cancer Topics
References:
- People in Their Nineties Share Tips for Longevity and Living Well
- Ghias, K., Jiang, Y., & Gupta, A. (2023). The impact of treatment-induced dysgeusia on the nutritional status of cancer patients. Clinical Nutrition Open Science, 50, 57-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nutos.2023.06.004
- Greg H, Post to Caregivers Group
Resources:
- Eating Hints: Before, during, and after Cancer Treatment: https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/eatinghints.pdf
- Taste and Smell Changes: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/side-effects/eating-problems/taste-smell-changes.html
“Now I Have to Learn to Fly Solo”
Longtime listeners are familiar with our sharing of Greg’s blog posts from Facebook. Greg has been writing for years about his girlfriend from grade school whom me married, had children, and in their later years, cared for during her end of life with Alzheimer’s disease. His girlfriend died on October 14, and with his permission, is a recent post.
Journal 11/4/2025
I’m not really sure what to write in today’s journal. Tomorrow, November 5th, is my Girlfriend’s Memorial Service, I’m running on emotional fumes. So, I will speak from the heart and see where it takes me.
We will place her ashes in the Columbarium Niche at my church tomorrow. My faith knows she is in a much better place than the urn that holds her ashes. But still, it feels like the closing chapter of a beautiful book.
I miss my Girlfriend, I am somewhat lost without her, my duty is complete. Where do I go from here?
Some of you “long timers” may remember one of my posts from 2021 about a goose and the gander at the side of a busy road. The goose had been hit and was dead, and the gander paced back and forth hoping his love would get up. (You know they mate for life, so you know the gander was panicked and frightened.)
My window down, I could hear him calling for her with his squawks “Get up, honey, get up, for God’s sake, please get up.”
I watched them from the parking lot of my wife’s Memory Care facility. Tears ran down my face as he stayed at her side.
I finally yelled from my car to the Gander, “You must move on, it is dangerous to stand so close to the road!” “You have to move on to protect yourself.”
He paid me no heed. He “stood by.”
Like the gander, I stood by for so long.
I wish I had stayed in that parking lot a bit longer, to understand when it is the right time to move on. To learn from his pain and his self-survival instincts.
Over the years that my wife traveled Dementia Road, I often thought of that gander. When it turned cold enough to fly south, did he go? Did he learn to fly solo?
Now I have to learn to fly solo. I’m not sure if I can ever fly again! 💔
Respectfully, GH
P.S. Tomorrow is Nov 5th, 2025, do you remember what happened on Nov 5, 1965? Sixty years to the day that I asked her to go steady! Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?
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