Tag Archives: Taste

Taste Aversion

The week after spring break, I returned back to school with some fresh vegetables, tortilla wraps, and my favorite Buffalo Light Ranch dressing that I had just recently discovered. As I live in an apartment and do not have a meal plan, bringing back with me these groceries that my parents so generously paid for was a huge bonus. I returned back Sunday afternoon and by dinner time could hardly wait to dig into my new items. I decided a sautéed vegetable wrap with a topping of my newly favorite dressing sounded beyond delicious. Needless to say, after I made it and scarfed it down, I was nothing less then pleased. This pleasure was short lived, however, as the next morning I woke up with terrible stomach pain. I was unable to eat and began to uncontrollably vomit. As it turns out I had contracted the stomach flu from my cousins at home who had also just gotten it.

Well after a long three days of no eating and too much sleeping, I finally felt better. However, I had a dilemma I faced every time I opened our refrigerator, I simply could no longer look at the vegetables or lovely buffalo ranch dressing that I devoured just days before. Every time I did I felt the nausea come over me again. I wanted so badly to crave this food as it was just sitting in my refrigerator going bad, but no matter how hard I tried I could not think of eating it again. It was then that I realized I was experiencing taste aversion, or the idea that humans are prone to have an aversion to foods if they become sick shortly after eating them. Since this was the last food item that I ate before becoming sick, my mind instantly associated the vegetables and dressing with my ill feeling of days prior. I became very sad to know that trying to eat these foods again would be a lost cause for a while and that I would have to throw them away. If only it had been something like brussels sprouts that I ate before getting the flu, then maybe I would not resent this taste aversion quality that we possess so much.