I was wondering if anyone else has experienced a sensitivity to or an increased sensitivity to food preservatives/additives prior to or after their Dx?

For over 10 years I have had mild adverse effects to food additives/preservatives. The most common is store bought hummus (like Sabra) would leave my tongue feeling numb. Over the past year it has increased to ketchup and salad dressings (any foods that are more liquid or creamy). Earlier this year, just a month or so before I noticed any problems with my tongue I had a pretty strong reaction to some tartar sauce in which my entire throat, tongue, lips, and chin became numb and itchy. I mentioned this to my normal doctor and he laughed and told me not to eat it then.

I was just curious to see if anyone else has noticed an increase in sensitivity to certain foods.

Nearly all of us experiences with changed palette senses. Most lose sense of taste for awhile. Most have a hard time with spicy and hot food for awhile. Being more sensitive to artificial additives is news to me and I can not remember any posts of similar concerns.

I go with the doc - just don't eat the stuff that gives you any weird sensations. :-)

I have experienced food sensitivities after chemo for quite a while. I could not eat pickles, cold cuts, and woud break out in a sweat. Milk irritated the roof of my mouth, made it itchy. I didn't like the taste of most things with artificial flavoring or coloring. It has changed over the years back, somewhat, and able to tolerate more now.

Thanks for your input. As for avoiding it, that is easier said than done as I am never quite sure which ones will cause a reaction until I've eaten them. And with how bad the last reaction was I would prefer to not have it happen again. I've just switched to eating more foods without preservatives and making my own dressings and condiments. I need to get better with making salad dressings that don't have vinegar or lemon juice in them as they tend to irritate my mouth right now.

Talim - It is really difficult to predict which tastes will be irritating and reactions can change from day to day. I have two recipes for dressings on my web site that do not contain lemon juice nor vinegar. One is a Blue Cheese Dressing and the other is a Ranch Dressing. If you care to check it out, just go here: http://webpages.charter.net/xila/recipelist.html

Anne-Marie, Thank you so much for the recipes!

Yes - my mouth is now like a junk - detector. If it has chemicals or additives that aren't natural, it tastes awful. Hugs!

Thank you, my taste has definitely evolved.

Too bad about the new junk detector sensor, Cheryl. My taste is good as it was so all my junk food tastes just as good as before. LOL

Only thing I have not fully regained tast ewise it the very hot stuff. I have a bottle of hot sauce called Spontaneous Combustion made from habanero pepper and capsicum extract and it really HURTS. Before it was just smoking hot but now has a physically reaction that just is not endurable.

It sounds like your common sense detector repaired itself, Don! LOL

Right. It's like touch the frying pan - you get common sense. Touch the iron - you get common sense. Taste that lethal sauce - you feel like charcoal brickettes stuck to the tongue in the mouth and nothing is putting the fire out gets common sense.

It sits on the shelf in my office; so far zero temptation to see if I am still 99% taste recovered or that last 100%. Going to be a few months before I try again before I'' check the CSD again. LOL

Don - it was interesting to learn of your reaction to the hot stuff. It sure can affect individuals differently. My son (7 yrs out from end of Tx) has had the opposite reaction to the hot stuff. He does have about 90% of his taste back, but he always had to add extra of the hot stuff when he makes his famous hot wing sauce because for him it always tastes like it doesn't have enough. So he always checks with his family re the taste when making it for others and then modifies the ingredients to make it less "hot" for them.

During treatment I grew the hottest jalape�os I ever tasted in my life. My youngest just moved here and we decided to can them together since we had talked about it for years. A few weeks out I decided we would check them out. They were beyond hot! I went to eat lunch with him at school and found out he was selling them to Hispanics in a dare. He had a pocket full of quarters and a few new friends. I gave most away and just asked for the jars back.

I'm thinking if you eat a lot of hot stuff before treatment, it doesn't bother as much.

I became so spicy sensitive post Tx that I couldn't even add pepper to anything. It soon returned to "normal" but I was never a real fan of spicy to begin with.