Lingering COVID issues.... Taste and Smell

[Mesa_John]

It seems like an eternity ago, but COVID nearly killed me back in 2021.  I spent 9 days in the Hospital and a collapsed lung made it even worse.  

I will never forget the morning of Day 8 in the hospital.  I placed my order for breakfast, my first meal in about 12 days.  When the nurse walked in the room with the scrambled eggs and bacon, I immediately started dry heaving at the smell and they had to take the food out of the room.  

I grew up on a ranch and on occasion we would find a dead cow that was at the height of being eaten up by maggots.  Once you smell that rotten flesh, you will never forget it and that morning in the hospital..... yeah, that is what the bacon and eggs smelled like.

For the next 6 months I struggled eating anything with protein because of the taste and smell issues.  Yep, COVID really messed up my taste and smell for a while.  Eventually, I mostly returned to normal, but on occasion some meats still give me a whiff of that rotten smell, when there is nothing wrong with the meat.  This morning is one of those moments.  This morning it is the scrambled eggs the wife made for breakfast.  UGH... I normally love eggs and when this happens it is frustrating, especially when that is all I have to eat.

Anyone else struggled with something similar while doing carnivore?

 

[Scott F.]

I am sort of at the top of the list of the at-risk groups when Covid came along. I had it twice and had all the same symptoms, exactly the same symptoms, in December of 2019, before "it ever got here". 

I lost the taste for sugar. Anything with sugar tasted horrible. I had been a life-long Mountain Dew/Pepsi drinker and they both were putrid. It lasted for about six months or so. In time it passed, and I was right back on the bottle (soft drink bottle) again. I never had issues afterwards. I didn't lose taste nor smell like a lot of people did but it did make sugar taste horrible.

No issues since 2022 and I didn't start carnivore til May of 24. 

Scott

[Geezy]

I’ve heard about that but I never experienced it. I think I had covid once but I never got tested. I had all of the symptoms everyone talks about but didn’t lose my taste or smell. I just didn’t feel like eating for a couple of days.

I can’t imagine losing my taste for food and especially smelling the smell of death when it’s around and yes, I know that smell very well myself.

The closest I can relate to is getting food poisoning from a bad clam once. It was probably about ten years before I could bear to eat another clam again.

Sorry you are having to go through this. I hope it passes soon.


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[Bob]

I've had covid twice but it didn't affect my taste or smell. It did for some of my friends. One guy could eat an onion like an apple, the potent kind that would make you cry, and not even taste it. He said it was the weirdest thing. Another friend and his wife thought their ketchup had gone bad, so they threw it away and bought another bottle and it was also bad-tasting. Turned out the ketchup was fine, it was their taste that was off.

I've sometimes been hungry but not very motivated to "eat another steak" lol, but I had to or else it was going to go bad. I try to mix things up from day to day to break up the monotony.

[Orweller]

When I had covid everything smelled like diesel, including fresh baked cookies. Before that, I could not smell for 5 months. Back to normal now. 

[Mesa_John]

Beef smelling and tasting rancid reared its ugly head again for dinner last night.  I skillet fried ground beef patties, put on top some bacon and Cheddar cheese.  The first bite tasted and smelled like spoiled meat.  Haven't had that issue since the first week on Carnivore.  I knew it wasn't bad, as the wife had no issue with the smell and taste of hers.... and she is VERY sensitive to anything she thinks might be even a tiny bit spoiled.  I didn't breathe out my nose and choked down 2/3'rds of the patty before I couldn't eat any more.

Just weird and frustrating......  If all meat and every meal were this way with me, there is no way I could do a Carnivore diet.

[Geezy]

Dang, that’s rough John. I can’t imagine.


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[Bob]

On 3/11/2025 at 8:36 AM, Mesa_John said:

Just weird and frustrating......  If all meat and every meal were this way with me, there is no way I could do a Carnivore diet.

Sounds like it hits at random.

When it does, is it all food that tastes off, or will it just be the beef and everything else is fine, or the eggs like a couple weeks ago but then everything else is fine?

 

[Mesa_John]

4 hours ago, Bob said:

Sounds like it hits at random.

When it does, is it all food that tastes off, or will it just be the beef and everything else is fine, or the eggs like a couple weeks ago but then everything else is fine?

 

I think I have it narrowed down to animal fat that is seared in a skillet.  The fatter the cut of meat, the more it is an issue with me, when I have the rare moment.  The first year after COVID I nearly went Vegetarian, because it happened so often.  It has happened twice since I started Carnivore and I cannot predict when it will happen.  I have no idea what triggers it.  Its been 5 years since COVID hit and it has only happened to me 6-8 times in the last year, where it was weekly the first year.

Sometimes, just the smell of Bacon cooking, can run me out of the house.  Sometimes, when she is cooking bacon, I will eat a half pound and love every bite.... 

Super weird.....

[Geezy]

That is weird. A carnivores worst nightmare.


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[Scott F.]

Covid and taste/smell issues is weird all by itself. I didn't lose taste or smell as I posted but it did make anything with sugar, even trace amounts of sugar taste like garbage.

Looking back, I drank Mountain Dew and Pepsi by the five-gallon bucket. I ate snack cakes religiously. Frozen grocery store Keylime pie by the boxes. Then, all of a sudden, they all tasted horrible, almost like rusty metal (not sure how I know how that tastes but.....). Just bad.

Meats and vegetables were fine. No issues. A carnivore lesson I learned long before carnivore was how much sugar goes into sauces. Sauces tasted bad as well. It took me a few days/weeks to figure out and nail it down to sugar. 

It lasted for awhile and just like any addict I kept going back. Yep, taste like crap, kept it moving. At some point months later, it faded, and the sugars tasted good again and I was back on the sugar train again.

It was weird how sugar became a target. It was an excellent means of weight loss but I would recommend it as a good way to go.

Scott