"You can get the acid, heat, even saltiness, but not the layers of things like cilantro and chipotle."
Most of our sense of what we think of as taste, Becker said, isn't really taste at all."All the interesting things about our food that we use to identify things like cheese and fruits and chocolate and coffee are not done with our mouth," she said.When recovery happens, sometimes the wires can get crossed."
While it's still unknown why people lose their sense of smell with Covid-19, Wen said "it's thought that the coronavirus doesn't affect nerve cells that control smell but rather the cells around them." That, too, is considered good news for recovery, since supporting cells regenerate easier than neurons."When the cells grow back, it might take some time and retraining to get back to normal," she said.Scent training can help Retraining her sense of smell is something that Kaya Cheshire — who said she's still missing 90% of her sense of smell since contracting a mild case of Covid-19 last July — has been trying out, along with adding far more herbs and spices than usual to her food.Becker said it's a tactic she recommends to patients since there is no cure for anosmia."Retraining your brain to what things smell like so you can remember is a bit mysterious," she said.