Smoking Dulls Taste
If you've recently quit smoking, you may have noticed that the foods you eat taste saltier than usual. Smoking decreases your sensitivity to tastes. A study done at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki found that those who smoked were not only less sensitive to tastes, but smoking affected the shape of the subjects' taste buds. The smokers had flatter taste buds, and a lower blood supply.
Smoking Dulls Smells
Smoking also affects your sense of smell. Smell has a lot to do with how you taste food. Scents travel through your nasal passages to the brain, which translates those scents into flavors. Since smoking makes you less sensitive to the aroma of food, it will taste different than normal.
Why Quitting Smoking Makes Foods Taste Salty
If you quit smoking, your sense of taste and smell will start return within 48 hours as your nerve endings begin to regenerate. As your sensitivity to taste and smell return, flavors will seem amplified compared to how they tasted while you were smoking. Hence, if you are finding that your foods taste salty after you've quit, consider that to be your sense of taste and smell returning to normal.
Tags: taste smell, your sense, foods taste, less sensitive, quit smoking, Quitting Smoking