Food/Drink: Have your tastes changed?

General
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To lighten up the discussions I would like to ask if/how your tastes has changed since your bleed.

For me, I was a Diet Pepsi-holic pre-bleed but two weeks out of it in the hospital changed that. I used to reach for a Diet Pepsi when I first woke up in the morning and ended my evenings with the same; averaging 4-6 cans/bottles a day. The caffeine kept me going, I was never a coffee drinker. Those two weeks shed the caffeine out of my body without even knowing it. At least now I am caffeine free except on headache days since caffeine is included in my meds. I now can’t stand the taste of colas or clear sodas. Now if I drink soda, its Root Beer (no caffeine) but only one can a day, usually in the evening.
I never was much for water especially my own well water. It was always bottled but now I can taste the filter processing in bottled water and now prefer my own unfiltered well water. I even drink the water at work (city water as my husband put it). I now drink more water than I ever had in my life.
I also used to drink sweet light white wines but now I prefer a fuller red wine like a merlot, cabernet or pinot noir. (Please don’t preach on the fact I should not be drinking when on the meds I’m on. My nuero just shrugged his shoulders when I asked.)
Food on the other hand is just different period. Things I used to really enjoy just aren’t the same. I just can’t put my finger on it. I also used to be a pretty good cook. I could make anything. I used to make many dishes from scratch, no recipe needed or if I had to follow a recipe I had no problems. Everything used to turn out great. It’s another story now. I really have to pay attention, not try to multi-task. (I flooded my laundry room one day when trying to make dinner and put some items in the laundry tub to soak-guess which one I lost track of!!!). I am getting better at it…slowly.
Tonight I finally had our supper down pat although it was ½ hour later than I thought it would be: roast chicken w/roasted veggies. I skipped making dessert but toyed with the idea of poached pears with chocolate sauce. I decided it would be too much effort and to many calories with the chocolate.
Over the holidays, I lost out to the sweets and ‘Reeses Peanut butter cups (something I could do without pre-bleed). By brain did not turn off its switch to stop eating sweets. That’s over now, except I can’t resist the cookies my husband ‘has to have’ in the house. (I am munching on one now…Oh well there’s always tomorrow.)
So how have your tastes changed since your bleed?

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The problem is that my tastes have NOT changed but my body has! When I first woke up and was eventually cleared to swallow I was thrilled to eat "anything I want" bc I figured I was dreaming anyway. Now my CMD looks at my tongue (an Asian diagnostic tool) and tells me I can't digest protein-rich food, e.g. meat or beans. So now I'm vegetarian and kind of vegan. I've made good progress craving veggies, but sometimes I just want to eat ice cream and be done with it. :)atnt

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Hi djs and I'm glad you posted this discussion. My first AVM bled in May of 2011 and I was hospitalized for 9 weeks (well the final 4 of those weeks were in a rehab in another hospital.) I don't remember the first 5 weeks at all but I learned that the staff used a feeding tube down my throat. Well, I could continue with what else I learned but to answer your question, there was a huge change in my tastes. For the last almost 3 years, I just eat to live and the best I hope for is that I can tolerate a food. I do not eat any sweets and I used to have a sweet tooth but the problem with this taste preference is that fruit tastes vile to me because of all the natural sugar. I can't drive so I accompany my husband to the grocery store and we always buy a bag of Lay's wavy chips because chips taste fine to me so I will eat a few every day and my husband likes them too. I do like to cook because I enjoy the various cooking processes and fortunately my husband likes the results. The main positive result of the change in my sense of taste is I have lost at least 40 pounds so I am now the size I was before I became pregnant and I like being a size 4 again so I think I could learn to like some things like sweets again but I choose not to work on that difference.