An odd question (that only YOU can answer)

[lagilman]

Y'see, although I love food, I love taste and texture and flavor and scent, etc of food -- there comes a point when a taste I normally like goes 'off' to me. Or rather, it tastes the same, but I feel ill or put off by it.

Is this normal? Or, at least, common?


My mom said that, in Weight Watchers lingo, I'm a "civilian." In other words, my body tells me when to stop eating, and I stop. But do other people get the actual 'shift' in their taste buds, or do they just feel full? (I might still feel hungry, but if I try to eat more, I will become nauseated).

Comments

[chibiaingeal.livejournal.com]

I do periodically get that type of reaction instead of feeling full. For me, I'd say it's 50/50 between feeling full and getting the type of feeling you describe.

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

Yes, it happens to me, too. I'm certain that the taste actually changes. Strangely, I also love food, the cooking and the eating, tastes, textures, experimenting with variations, etc.

[larah33.livejournal.com]

I get this occasionally. If I'm eating and feel full, but there's just a few more (spoonsful, forksful, whatever) on my plate, I will try to finish it off. One more bite and I'm fine. I lift the second bite to my mouth and suddenly I'm nauseous. Fork goes back to my plate and those last two bites remain uneaten.

I feel guilty about leaving food on my plate (thanks, Mom!) but I'm not going to push myself to be sick.

[lagilman]

yeah, that's it, exactly. From one bite to the next, everything shifts.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yup. I hit FULL! and then if I try to push, I usually wind up spitting out the next bite.

The severity of the "stop eating now or else" reaction varies, usually tied to stress levels. When I get really squirrelly, not only will I stop eating, but I'll immediately try to bury my food, either clearing away the plate or covering the food with napkins.

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

Certainly happened with my breakfast, this morning. I love egg on toast, but I could not get the last two bites to my mouth, because the previous mouthful suddenly tasted...or didn't taste. Not sure what happened, but I couldn't face it.

[chibiaingeal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how it is with me. One bite is fine, next bite not fine.

[rosefox]

Yep, this. Not always, but sometimes.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

No, that doesn't happen to me. But it would explain some of my son's behavior. I'll have to talk to him about it.

[rovanda.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I think I get it at the other end - if I'm ravenous and *need food NOW* everything tastes divine, even Gatorade. If I'm sated, or just mildly hungry, some of the same stuff tastes horrible.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

It happens to me. Depends on the food and how hungry I am, but some tastes are great for a bite or two, then that's it.

Btw one of them is chocolate. I can't eat a lot of it. It's perfectly nice, then, no. This is not apparently very common.

Another side of this is that if something doesn't taste quite as rich/tasty/spicy/sweet/whatever as I feel it should, I may keep taking bites to try to find the flavor. Then I get sick of it and that's that.

Are there things you can't stop eating (versus things you can't keep eating), too?

[severedscythe.livejournal.com]

I had that reaction today. A food I normally love made me feel physically ill. Also, my brother made me feel ill but I was feeling vaugely sick before that.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I totally do that. Not always, or maybe I just notice it more some days vs others, but between one bite and the next...when books talk of food turning to ashes in someone's mouth, that's what I always assume is the meaning. If I have a few bites left I can *usually* finish it, but sometimes it's like, half of my meal *and* I know I'll be sick if I keep eating it.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

That happens to me quite regularly. I also find my tastes change depending on how I feel physically. The food I crave/enjoy when I'm feeling well isn't always the food I want/can eat when I'm not.

[lagilman]

Yeah, that's a different thing mostly, I think. This is more the body saying "no more, and we're going to enforce it."

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

For me, it only works this way if I'd been eating something because of a craving. "Cheese! Must have cheese, colby is good, OM NOM NOM NOM wait gack!"

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

partially its as we age that our tastes change (to me) but some of it has to do with what our bodies need... if it wants salt or potatoes... or hot sauce.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. If there's something I need, foods with it taste better than usual. And I notice that things don't taste as good before I stop feeling hungry, if I'm paying attention. And I'll go through binges--some particular food will taste unusually wonderful for a couple of weeks, then I sometimes won't be interested in it for a couple of months.

And when I went on the Atkins diet for a while, I never stopped craving milk until I started taking calcium pills.

So you're not alone!

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Reading other people's notes--I don't get the "tastes like ashes" or "another bite will make me feel sick" experience, though if I did, I bet I'd be thinner!

[eldestmuse.livejournal.com]

Happens to me too, except I can usually eat a few bites of something else.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

The smell suddenly becomes unappealing for me. Unfortunately, that only works for the food I'm eating Something completely different, like dessert--still smells perfectly fine!

[g33kboi.livejournal.com]

I have had similar experiences. Sometimes it's just a case of "too full, put the fork down and no one will get hurt". Other times it's a case of "you've had enough of [insert food type here] for now. More would be a bad idea. No really, we're done here." For me that is frequently eggs or dill (but not dill pickles oddly enough).

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Food never has tasted different to me. At a certain point it just stops lighting up my brain.

[spiffikins]

this happened to me once, that I remember it *vividly*.

I'd just spent 6 hours at an outdoor music festival, in the middle of summer - awesome time! On my way home, I was waiting for the bus and decided to get a drink. For some reason, I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade.

I never drink Gatorade - but this stuff was the most delicious thing I'd ever had. It was amazing!

And then there was only an inch left at the bottom of the bottle. And I thought, eh I should finish it off.

I nearly gagged - it was the most disgusting thing - I couldn't believe how much it had changed!

I guess I didn't "need" any more :)