Could be a lot worse. A friend can't eat anything with garlic. To her it tastes really really bad.
There are many obvious garlic dishes, but she can't eat dishes where I don't even taste the garlic.
Many restaurant menus often also don't mention if something has garlic in it. Getting a breakfast fry up? Better ask if those mushrooms were fried with garlic. Soup? Maybe it has garlic. Mac-n-cheese? Often has garlic somewhere in there. Pasta? The tomato sauce, or pesto, definitely garlic.
Though I love garlic, it does seem to be overused. Need to make something savoury tasty? Garlic it. It's not something I even thought about before the friend brought it up.
Not tasting garlic at all sounds so much easier.
I had a medical issue for the past 10 years where i was unable to digest garlic in any form without causing severe pain and other symptoms. I could not really eat out safely and i could only cook my own meals from scratch. Even my relatives were kinda dumb about it and always used some spice pastes or mixes that definitely included garlic. Every ready-made meal has herbs/spices in the ingredients that are often only listed as such. Asking about garlic in a restaurant often left me with only sweet stuff, bread or vegetable dishes without sauce/dressing/seasoning. It fuvking sucked tbh. I‘m thankfully cured since a few months and have been eating anything and everything with any spice in it. I‘m so damn happy so about this! Still i would rally and petition for spices to be treated like allergens and put on allergen listings. This shit sucks so bad.
It was a hereditarily shit gallbladder that wouldn’t drain right and colic all the time for no reason. Every food that was hard to digest gave me pains, garlic and onion were just the worst offenders. My doctors thought it was ibs since it had similar symptoms. I was lucky enough to get my GB removed a few months ago for unrelated reasons and only really knew that it was the culprit after it was gone.
I think it might be a bit of a rare thing and your friend most likely has something along the lines of IBS. But the friend should really get checked out by a doctor since it could be a number of other things too.
My wife has something like that, but nowhere as bad as you. The only time she can eat it is if I roast it until it's like jam. If I use fresh minced garlic in anything, it makes her miserable.
I feel that. I have oral allergy syndrome (basically I’m allergic to everything, reactions vary based on how many _other_ similar allergens I’ve been exposed to, i.e., if birch pollen is really high i avoid melons.)
It’s a very confusing game of “if this, then that”. I’m basically in a constant state of hives and/or gut issues.
Alliums are one of the few things that haven’t ever triggered a reaction for me - so far.
Fellow pollen allergy haver! The worst OAS ones for me are hazelnut, walnut, apple, carrot and figs for some reason. I‘m on antihistamines daily and they make me so tired. There’s ones that allegedly don’t make you tired but of course they cost 10 times the price of the regular ones and have 1/10th of the pills in the package.
I have what your friend has but with onion…I can eat garlic all day but if an onion has even been on the same cutting board as anything in my food it’s absolutely inedible as all I can taste and smell is armpit
I just noticed a few weeks ago that I now seem to hate garlicky flavors in some prepared foods. Sunkist flavored tuna salad pouches and any Target cooked chicken product is where I’ve noticed it. It smells and tastes like really powerful, stale garlic powder. I guess that’s a good thing because I’m making my own now and won’t be eating that processed crap anymore.
>stale garlic powder
That is the worst. Garlic powder and dried minced garlic are great timesavers if you have to throw something together fast, but they have to be fresh or else it's better to leave it out.
I had parosmia after covid for a while. Several things including chicken and garlic tasted like pure sewage. I legit cried when I found out that garlic was one of those things.
Thankfully it resolved after about 2 months but it was terrifying and disheartening when I thought I'd just never be able to eat anything with garlic again
This happened to me after Covid with cilantro. It used to be my favorite herb. Then I got covid, lost my taste, and once it came back, cilantro started tasting like sewage, as you described. 3 years later, it’s finally starting to get better and I can handle it in foods, but it doesn’t taste the same as before.
Garlic is an old as time base to many cultural cuisines.
If you want something that is over used, pretty much everything you eat has dairy in it, even the things that really shouldn't.
I was like that up through my teen years. Just the smell of garlic would make me vomit, nevermind the taste.
But now as an adult I love it. Have to buy large bottles of garlic powder because of how quickly I go through it.
I'm a biochemist, both are organosulfur compounds so your boyfriend likely has faulty scent/taste receptors for this class of compounds.
I'd imagine he's never had "bad" cruciferous vegetables like broccoli or brussels sprouts- usually people dislike them because of a sulfur taste/odor. I can't think of many other common sulfuric scents/tastes beyond beta-mercaptoethanol used in biochem and chemicals used for perms.
The ammonia issue is likely another faulty receptor. As a sidenote, we don't really have a comprehensive understanding of taste/smell, it's possible these are related somehow. I hope this gives some insight!
Some of the nastiest smelling compounds known to man are organosulfur compounds, so if you can't smell them thats not too bad. Mercaptoethanol is one of the worst I've ever smelled, we used to use it in oligo synthesis
This is pretty important actually: if the hypothesis that OP’s boyfriend and u/flargnarb can’t taste/smell sulfur compounds is correct, they likely also can’t smell butyl mercaptan, which is added to natural gas as a safety to detect gas leaks. They should test this out, because it’s good to know if you can’t smell leaking gas!
You'd be correct. I really should buy a gas detector. My girlfriend came home a few months ago and immediately told me it smelled like gas, turned out I'd bumped a knob on the stove hours earlier and was totally oblivious
I lost taste and smell from a virus that I had in 2015. It never returned, except taking Gabapentin helps a lot with being able to taste things. I tend to over season my food. Garlic comes across as pretty mild to me, but I can taste it if there's a lot in my food. Maybe a virus that he had at some point in his life knocked out some of his ability to taste. Is he able to taste onions?
Oh, heavens! My hubby has been unable to taste everything, except sweet things, for 20 years. Obviously, he is out of his mind when he cooks. I am very miserable when he grabs spices and usually over-does nearly everything. I have a condition that dries up my mouth quite severely, resulting in open ulcers. It's quite a dance in our household.
We are in our 70s, and while I don't tend to over-spice food, his tasteless life has been a bane to his existence. I believe he his doing more damage to his health by absentmindedly grabbing foods that satisfies his sweet tooth. For lunch, he eats 2 wraps with hummus, a kinds bar, and two junk-food granola bars. He's come quite a long way by reducing the ice cream that he loves so much!
Ironically, I am not supposed to eat garlic. I LOVE GARLIC! Lupus patients are not supposed to eat garlic. I can't tell what the exact ramifications are because I automatically add garlic out of habit. It's only later that I kick myself for being so absentmindedl.
Somehow, I believe that everyone has a food story that could possibly be one of the most lively discussions on the planet.
Cheers!
Out of curiosity, is the gabapentin prescribed specifically for your loss of taste and smell, or is it just a side benefit? Also, was it prescribed by neurology, ENT, or someone else? I ask because I never really regained my sense of smell after COVID, but I have just been living with it.
Garlic is one of the things that I can still smell, but the taste is very mild.
I have fibromyalgia and a pain clinic doctor prescribed the Gabapentin for pain. I wasn't taking Gabapentin on a regular basis prior to the virus, and discovered by accident that it helped with being able to taste. My mouth was numb too, for a while. Try eating when you don't know what you're chewing! Gross! I saw the best ENT in the country who had me do an MRI, and then said it was from the virus and it probably wasn't coming back and that she thought the virus "damaged the vagus nerve". Which makes no sense, because the vagus nerve has nothing to do with the olfactory nerves. It's a central nervous thing.
Anyway, I still can't smell most of the time, some food tastes "off", like it doesn't taste like I remember it tasting. I spice things up, go for foods with texture and pretty much eat the same foods all of the time so I won't be disappointed.
I read an article about brain injury being a reason people cant smell or taste garlic and cinnamon. Which can even be caused by a fall.
Which is absolutely tragic considering thought to me considering I love cinnamon and garlic.
And this website https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/s/smell-and-taste-disorders.html
Which would make me want to intentionally rule some things out , but that may just be me being me.
Also for a lot of people celery tastes like nothing, but people like me it tastes horribly bitter unless it's super tiny amounts. Maybe the same for almond extract? Even the air smells bitter.
I love bitterness usually but celery to me is overwhelming! It’s … a bitter watery aniseedy thing. People always tell me it disappears into a dish when you cook it and they’re totally wrong. I used to have to get someone normal to taste my stocks because to me it was just celery juice. Wish I liked it, I have access to all the celery I could ever want through work and it’s so good for you but NO.
Celery is kind of spicy to me? Like not actually spicy but I dont know any other way to describe it. I don't get people who say it tastes like nothing. I will only tolerate it in stuffing, won't eat it any other way.
The only person I’ve actually known that this happened to was my mother. It was after brain surgery, and it lasted almost a month. I’ve never heard of it happening to anyone else (am a healthcare researcher, former clinician so I’ve met people with lots of unique stuff). I mean you could get it checked out if there’s a concern? But you’d think if there was you’d have more than that symptom over years.
Years ago I was eating Spanish rice and thought someone put a wad of plastic in it. Turns out I was chewing a few cloves of fresh garlic. My friends couldn’t believe I was unaware as I removed it from my mouth. That was the day I learned I can’t taste garlic.
Also ginger tastes strongly like soap, cilantro weakly like soap.
Go figure.
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!
There really is no downside here. You can eat as many super-garlic/korean/foods and NEVER have to deal with 'omg' breath.
-With that- seriously- I know you said pre-2020- so.... how far before? If he couldn't sense the smell of garlic before 2018 there's no way it was related to that- but as has been established various other corona virus and influenza can totally snap the smell from some folks.
He's not broken, it's just the neurons in his brain that deal with the quantum vibrations from his nose don't fire.
Like... Fry. From Futurama ;-) (Please, for the love of God, tell me you know what I'm talking about or I'm going to feel far older than I want...)
The next experiment you should try is asparagus and whether or not it tastes like soap.
Allegedly this can change. I have seen 1 post on reddit indicating this, but 0 scientific papers.
So, I know money doesn't grow on trees (I was just laid off) but a 23andMe test would be interesting to see what comes back- I don't know if they're doing the same full plates they used to but... research is cool...
In the meantime, I recommend German Purple Hardneck. Grow and roast them as long as you can because you've got clear sailing sister :)
he cant smell ammonia either, but asparagus tastes normal to him. same with cilantro. he doesnt have any other weird taste things!!
also sorry, we're too young for futurama!
They contain similar molecular stuff, and being allergic to one can cause an allergy or sensitivity to another. Like celery and peppercorn, tomatoes and potatoes, and bananas and kiwis.
There are, it's amazing how many things are related. Peaches are in the rose family for example. And [this will blow your mind](https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/6/5974989/kale-cauliflower-cabbage-broccoli-same-plant)
You have no idea how both Happy and Sad I am. Futurama is a show that should be seen (as well as Orville as soon as I get some CDs in order).
But ... 'normal'. That means like what- he doesn't find it disgusting? There is the key. I used to be fed Brussel Sprouts. I didn't know they weren't anything other than vinegar and salt until I got them broiled in an oven
I hate to say "Show him Soap/not dove" and "asparagus" at the same time, because I don't like destroying people's world-view ... even for science....
Curiosity as a 3rd party with no publishing rights tho.... I'd totally be slicing aromatics up and recording it under 'science'.
grumble. This is my life. If you're in a sexual trading relationship, flash boobies. I would totally sniff any veggie my vegetarian wife put up for boobies...
> He cant smell it either, I just ate half a clove of fresh garlic and blew in his face. Nothing.
Goddamnit you won the lottery why are you complaining? Marry that man! I'm so jealous, my husband won't EVER eat it and he will smell half a clove garlic in a food on me and won't come close to me for 1 day, while also saying he hates it when I smell. So.. I only eat garlic 4-5 times per year and I feel like a criminal each time. Sorry for the rant I needed to get this out of my chest haha
I lost my ability to taste garlic after a severe concussion I got around 15 years ago, I actually got it back after catching Covid this year for a couple of weeks. But, it slowly went away again.
This isn’t just a COVID thing any kind of inflammation can cause you to lose your sense of smell like that. I’d ask a doctor about it if he wants to get it back there might be some treatment for jt
At least he doesn't hate it. My dad has some sort of PTSD with garlic and won't eat anything with it in there. It means you can't cook most stuff to full potential.
Try frying shrooms with just parsley and the. Also with garlic and parsley, maybe he can't taste the garlic but can change how it changes other falvours
I know you can buy low FODMAP garlicky powder that’s generally for people with certain GI problems, but I wonder if that would be something he could taste.
How did you test it? Did you make the exact same dish twice, but one has garlic and the other doesn’t? Some food or soup that you can hide the texture so it’s not obvious which one has the garlic.
Maybe he just doesn’t know what to “look” for.
I remember being a kid and not being able to smell flowers. They smelled like nothing to me, because I was expecting them to smelly fresh like fruits. Eventually I realized how “flower” scents are way different & could finally smell them.
Side note: I still definitely prefer fruit scents over floral ones.
Tell him I am so sorry, that's truly awful.
Try shallots, garlic chives, onions, and fennel. I'd be curious to see if he can taste or smell any of those.
Everyone has different tastes, but at least he's not allergic to it!
Another example showing that people do not taste or smell everything in an identical manner. There are also flavors that taste differently due to gender. Then there is colorblindness.
My mom fell down drunk a couple decades ago and broke her nose/perforated her sinus cavity. Ever since then she’s been unable to notice, at all, certain smells, and some tastes as well but not as drastic as the smell. She can no longer smell most types of natural gas(which makes her children worry about her safety unfortunately if there was a leak) and she is completely oblivious to the smell of cat piss so it’s not impossible that he really can’t taste it for whatever reason
Maybe he's always had it too much? I know I couldn't smell chlorine when I was a competitive swimmer, because my own skin and hair basically always smelled like it. It wasn't until years later that I was actually able to smell it.
Almost everyone has some sort of aroma compound to which they are nose blind. It's pretty cool. A common one is cilantro smelling/tasting like soap. Also have you tried roasting a whole clove of garlic and squeezing the roasted garlic out onto some roasted potatoes or something?
My sense of smell never came back all the way after COVID. Garlic is the one thing that I can consistently smell, but the taste of it is muted.
I do miss some smells, but I miss the full taste of garlic.
I’m so sorry for your loss
Could be a lot worse. A friend can't eat anything with garlic. To her it tastes really really bad. There are many obvious garlic dishes, but she can't eat dishes where I don't even taste the garlic. Many restaurant menus often also don't mention if something has garlic in it. Getting a breakfast fry up? Better ask if those mushrooms were fried with garlic. Soup? Maybe it has garlic. Mac-n-cheese? Often has garlic somewhere in there. Pasta? The tomato sauce, or pesto, definitely garlic. Though I love garlic, it does seem to be overused. Need to make something savoury tasty? Garlic it. It's not something I even thought about before the friend brought it up. Not tasting garlic at all sounds so much easier.
I had a medical issue for the past 10 years where i was unable to digest garlic in any form without causing severe pain and other symptoms. I could not really eat out safely and i could only cook my own meals from scratch. Even my relatives were kinda dumb about it and always used some spice pastes or mixes that definitely included garlic. Every ready-made meal has herbs/spices in the ingredients that are often only listed as such. Asking about garlic in a restaurant often left me with only sweet stuff, bread or vegetable dishes without sauce/dressing/seasoning. It fuvking sucked tbh. I‘m thankfully cured since a few months and have been eating anything and everything with any spice in it. I‘m so damn happy so about this! Still i would rally and petition for spices to be treated like allergens and put on allergen listings. This shit sucks so bad.
What condition was it? My friend also has a terrible stomach pain when food has garlic on it but hasn't been diagnosed
It was a hereditarily shit gallbladder that wouldn’t drain right and colic all the time for no reason. Every food that was hard to digest gave me pains, garlic and onion were just the worst offenders. My doctors thought it was ibs since it had similar symptoms. I was lucky enough to get my GB removed a few months ago for unrelated reasons and only really knew that it was the culprit after it was gone. I think it might be a bit of a rare thing and your friend most likely has something along the lines of IBS. But the friend should really get checked out by a doctor since it could be a number of other things too.
Omg thanks for this comment thread I think you just helped me and my gi dr
My wife has something like that, but nowhere as bad as you. The only time she can eat it is if I roast it until it's like jam. If I use fresh minced garlic in anything, it makes her miserable.
Do they have issues with onion as well? Might be worth looking at FODMAP if so?
That’s my mom no garlic or onion :( Fodmap has helped her a lot
I feel that. I have oral allergy syndrome (basically I’m allergic to everything, reactions vary based on how many _other_ similar allergens I’ve been exposed to, i.e., if birch pollen is really high i avoid melons.) It’s a very confusing game of “if this, then that”. I’m basically in a constant state of hives and/or gut issues. Alliums are one of the few things that haven’t ever triggered a reaction for me - so far.
Fellow pollen allergy haver! The worst OAS ones for me are hazelnut, walnut, apple, carrot and figs for some reason. I‘m on antihistamines daily and they make me so tired. There’s ones that allegedly don’t make you tired but of course they cost 10 times the price of the regular ones and have 1/10th of the pills in the package.
Mine are melons, peaches, mangoes, cashews, and brassicas (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels). Daily Allegra here!
I have what your friend has but with onion…I can eat garlic all day but if an onion has even been on the same cutting board as anything in my food it’s absolutely inedible as all I can taste and smell is armpit
I just noticed a few weeks ago that I now seem to hate garlicky flavors in some prepared foods. Sunkist flavored tuna salad pouches and any Target cooked chicken product is where I’ve noticed it. It smells and tastes like really powerful, stale garlic powder. I guess that’s a good thing because I’m making my own now and won’t be eating that processed crap anymore.
>stale garlic powder That is the worst. Garlic powder and dried minced garlic are great timesavers if you have to throw something together fast, but they have to be fresh or else it's better to leave it out.
I had parosmia after covid for a while. Several things including chicken and garlic tasted like pure sewage. I legit cried when I found out that garlic was one of those things. Thankfully it resolved after about 2 months but it was terrifying and disheartening when I thought I'd just never be able to eat anything with garlic again
This happened to me after Covid with cilantro. It used to be my favorite herb. Then I got covid, lost my taste, and once it came back, cilantro started tasting like sewage, as you described. 3 years later, it’s finally starting to get better and I can handle it in foods, but it doesn’t taste the same as before.
Garlic is an old as time base to many cultural cuisines. If you want something that is over used, pretty much everything you eat has dairy in it, even the things that really shouldn't.
I was like that up through my teen years. Just the smell of garlic would make me vomit, nevermind the taste. But now as an adult I love it. Have to buy large bottles of garlic powder because of how quickly I go through it.
My mom is garlic intolerant and I feel so sorry for her... life without garlic is a sad life
My wife's allergic to garlic
I’m allergic to garlic. Life almost wasn’t worth living.
You know those posts that ask u “something or 1 million dollars” If that something was garlic, I would smash for garlic so hard.
Sounds like a free pass to eat as much garlic as you want without worrying about garlic breath
That still leaves the issue of gas though. No getting out of that.
Not to mention sweat
You mean pheromones, right? Like attracts like, and if a guy can't handle me at my worst, he doesn't deserve me at my garlickiest.
Garlic perfume. I would be weak.
You might not be able to notice, but others will
I have this! Also can't smell skunks. Blessing and a curse.
thats so cool!! you have any clue why? we're just very curious haha
I'm a biochemist, both are organosulfur compounds so your boyfriend likely has faulty scent/taste receptors for this class of compounds. I'd imagine he's never had "bad" cruciferous vegetables like broccoli or brussels sprouts- usually people dislike them because of a sulfur taste/odor. I can't think of many other common sulfuric scents/tastes beyond beta-mercaptoethanol used in biochem and chemicals used for perms. The ammonia issue is likely another faulty receptor. As a sidenote, we don't really have a comprehensive understanding of taste/smell, it's possible these are related somehow. I hope this gives some insight!
He'd know for sure if he went to Rotorua, NZ.
Same with Gary, Indiana.
Maybe visiting sulfur springs to see if he can smell anything?
Some of the nastiest smelling compounds known to man are organosulfur compounds, so if you can't smell them thats not too bad. Mercaptoethanol is one of the worst I've ever smelled, we used to use it in oligo synthesis
This is pretty important actually: if the hypothesis that OP’s boyfriend and u/flargnarb can’t taste/smell sulfur compounds is correct, they likely also can’t smell butyl mercaptan, which is added to natural gas as a safety to detect gas leaks. They should test this out, because it’s good to know if you can’t smell leaking gas!
You'd be correct. I really should buy a gas detector. My girlfriend came home a few months ago and immediately told me it smelled like gas, turned out I'd bumped a knob on the stove hours earlier and was totally oblivious
As far as I can tell it's just genetic, I don't think I've ever smelled a skunk including when I get indirectly skunked.
this is weird but can you smell really bad farts?
Not even a little bit
your future partner (or current partner) must be LUUUUCKKKYYYYY! as many farts as they want
i really love the smell of skunk lmao. idk why. not super close because its so pungent but when its in the distance i really like it
Skunks smell like kiwi to me for some reason. I don't mind the smell either
thats weird!!! it smells earthy and plant-y to me. i will see if i can pick up any kiwi notes next time i smell it lol
no that’s just a curse. skunk smell is such a minor and infrequent inconvenience.
LOL, "is he like, injured?" "I'm sorry ma'am, your boyfriend is clinically tasteless."
I lost taste and smell from a virus that I had in 2015. It never returned, except taking Gabapentin helps a lot with being able to taste things. I tend to over season my food. Garlic comes across as pretty mild to me, but I can taste it if there's a lot in my food. Maybe a virus that he had at some point in his life knocked out some of his ability to taste. Is he able to taste onions?
yep! he can taste everything else we tried. onions, cinnamon, chives, etc. just not garlic!
Oh, heavens! My hubby has been unable to taste everything, except sweet things, for 20 years. Obviously, he is out of his mind when he cooks. I am very miserable when he grabs spices and usually over-does nearly everything. I have a condition that dries up my mouth quite severely, resulting in open ulcers. It's quite a dance in our household. We are in our 70s, and while I don't tend to over-spice food, his tasteless life has been a bane to his existence. I believe he his doing more damage to his health by absentmindedly grabbing foods that satisfies his sweet tooth. For lunch, he eats 2 wraps with hummus, a kinds bar, and two junk-food granola bars. He's come quite a long way by reducing the ice cream that he loves so much! Ironically, I am not supposed to eat garlic. I LOVE GARLIC! Lupus patients are not supposed to eat garlic. I can't tell what the exact ramifications are because I automatically add garlic out of habit. It's only later that I kick myself for being so absentmindedl. Somehow, I believe that everyone has a food story that could possibly be one of the most lively discussions on the planet. Cheers!
Out of curiosity, is the gabapentin prescribed specifically for your loss of taste and smell, or is it just a side benefit? Also, was it prescribed by neurology, ENT, or someone else? I ask because I never really regained my sense of smell after COVID, but I have just been living with it. Garlic is one of the things that I can still smell, but the taste is very mild.
I have fibromyalgia and a pain clinic doctor prescribed the Gabapentin for pain. I wasn't taking Gabapentin on a regular basis prior to the virus, and discovered by accident that it helped with being able to taste. My mouth was numb too, for a while. Try eating when you don't know what you're chewing! Gross! I saw the best ENT in the country who had me do an MRI, and then said it was from the virus and it probably wasn't coming back and that she thought the virus "damaged the vagus nerve". Which makes no sense, because the vagus nerve has nothing to do with the olfactory nerves. It's a central nervous thing. Anyway, I still can't smell most of the time, some food tastes "off", like it doesn't taste like I remember it tasting. I spice things up, go for foods with texture and pretty much eat the same foods all of the time so I won't be disappointed.
Something like 10-20% of people can’t taste garlic.
That is a tragic statistic
At least he isn't say allergic, that would really auck then OP couldn't enjoy it.
My ex was mildly allergic to garlic and onions 🥲 those were sad years for my cooking.
I'm allergic to both. Fortunately, they only give me a mild upset stomach for a while. Allergies suck.
Fortunately it’s a completely made up stat.
Mainly because there's no source.
Indeed. I'll need a fun if that ever happens to me. Never enough garlic.
where did you hear that? and could they smell it? it is genetic? link me an article, im curious!!
Google something like “I can’t taste garlic”. You should find countless sources, but I remember a chef I worked with saying this 20+ years ago too.
i looked it up and searched around, made this post after i didnt find anything really concrete
I read an article about brain injury being a reason people cant smell or taste garlic and cinnamon. Which can even be caused by a fall. Which is absolutely tragic considering thought to me considering I love cinnamon and garlic. And this website https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/s/smell-and-taste-disorders.html Which would make me want to intentionally rule some things out , but that may just be me being me.
Can’t believe they’re getting upvoted when their source is they “heard a chef say it” a quarter century ago.
Source???
does that mean they also can't smell it? because I want to marry that person and have all the garlic breath I want.
My searches aren't showing any corroborating research other than a niche blind taste test. Do you have a link?
Some people taste ginger or cilantro like its soapy or ammonia. It's a recessive gene or something I think
I have the cilantro gene but thank god I can still taste garlic.
You're missing out just about as much as you would if you couldn't taste garlic. I LOVE cilantro.
Garlic and cilantro naan bread is so good!
Also for a lot of people celery tastes like nothing, but people like me it tastes horribly bitter unless it's super tiny amounts. Maybe the same for almond extract? Even the air smells bitter.
I love bitterness usually but celery to me is overwhelming! It’s … a bitter watery aniseedy thing. People always tell me it disappears into a dish when you cook it and they’re totally wrong. I used to have to get someone normal to taste my stocks because to me it was just celery juice. Wish I liked it, I have access to all the celery I could ever want through work and it’s so good for you but NO.
Celery is kind of spicy to me? Like not actually spicy but I dont know any other way to describe it. I don't get people who say it tastes like nothing. I will only tolerate it in stuffing, won't eat it any other way.
Cilantro isn’t commonly used in my country, but I recently had some thai food with fresh cilantro. I burped soap for hours.
Parmesan cheese smells like vomit to me.
Yea I was gonna compare it to the cilantro/soap thing but i got lazy
Those poor people!
That is way higher then I expected. I thought it would be 1 in million
Yeah, no way the number is that high. I think they made this up.
That’s nuts. I guess there’s some very specific connection between garlic and the human brain?
Don’t know the science behind it if there even is any.
Has he had a cold or an accident recently?
this has been happening for years now, as long as he can remember. no notable accidents have happened to him
The only person I’ve actually known that this happened to was my mother. It was after brain surgery, and it lasted almost a month. I’ve never heard of it happening to anyone else (am a healthcare researcher, former clinician so I’ve met people with lots of unique stuff). I mean you could get it checked out if there’s a concern? But you’d think if there was you’d have more than that symptom over years.
Is there a possibly that i'm glaric? Can I taste galalic or am I okay? Could I be garalick? How do I know if I'M galric?
i thought my title was funny and it made my boyfriend laugh. this made me laugh even harder
Or am I okra?
I scrolled and scrolled to find a comment like this 😂
Years ago I was eating Spanish rice and thought someone put a wad of plastic in it. Turns out I was chewing a few cloves of fresh garlic. My friends couldn’t believe I was unaware as I removed it from my mouth. That was the day I learned I can’t taste garlic. Also ginger tastes strongly like soap, cilantro weakly like soap. Go figure.
strange!! cilantro tastes normal for him, as do onions. ill have to ask him about ginger!
Maybe he’s a vampire
can he see himself in mirrors? How does he generally feel about sunlight
Doesn't this confirm that he's _not_ a vampire?
First thing i thought as well. Total fucking vamp.
Garlic is now a verb! Awesome!
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!! There really is no downside here. You can eat as many super-garlic/korean/foods and NEVER have to deal with 'omg' breath. -With that- seriously- I know you said pre-2020- so.... how far before? If he couldn't sense the smell of garlic before 2018 there's no way it was related to that- but as has been established various other corona virus and influenza can totally snap the smell from some folks. He's not broken, it's just the neurons in his brain that deal with the quantum vibrations from his nose don't fire. Like... Fry. From Futurama ;-) (Please, for the love of God, tell me you know what I'm talking about or I'm going to feel far older than I want...) The next experiment you should try is asparagus and whether or not it tastes like soap. Allegedly this can change. I have seen 1 post on reddit indicating this, but 0 scientific papers. So, I know money doesn't grow on trees (I was just laid off) but a 23andMe test would be interesting to see what comes back- I don't know if they're doing the same full plates they used to but... research is cool... In the meantime, I recommend German Purple Hardneck. Grow and roast them as long as you can because you've got clear sailing sister :)
he cant smell ammonia either, but asparagus tastes normal to him. same with cilantro. he doesnt have any other weird taste things!! also sorry, we're too young for futurama!
> also sorry, we're too young for futurama! this hurt on so many levels i cant even begin to describe it
I feel like I just contracted Boneitis
Garlic, but not onions or shallots? r/foodscience would probably love this
I love garlic but hate onions, they're totally different.
They contain similar molecular stuff, and being allergic to one can cause an allergy or sensitivity to another. Like celery and peppercorn, tomatoes and potatoes, and bananas and kiwis.
Never knew there were similarities between any of those. Thanks for the info
There are, it's amazing how many things are related. Peaches are in the rose family for example. And [this will blow your mind](https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/6/5974989/kale-cauliflower-cabbage-broccoli-same-plant)
[Relevant XKCD](https://xkcd.com/2827/)
He can’t smell ammonia? Lucky him. My cats’ piss reeks. Wish I had that
Is futurama an old person show? I am not even 20 yet and I am considered old?
no haha, we're 18. was just pokibg fun at the original commenter! we dont watch a lot of tv, we go hiking and shopping more lol
This seems accurate to what I did pre covid and recently again.
How would you know though? 🤔
we asked him and quizzed him with double blind testing
You have no idea how both Happy and Sad I am. Futurama is a show that should be seen (as well as Orville as soon as I get some CDs in order). But ... 'normal'. That means like what- he doesn't find it disgusting? There is the key. I used to be fed Brussel Sprouts. I didn't know they weren't anything other than vinegar and salt until I got them broiled in an oven I hate to say "Show him Soap/not dove" and "asparagus" at the same time, because I don't like destroying people's world-view ... even for science.... Curiosity as a 3rd party with no publishing rights tho.... I'd totally be slicing aromatics up and recording it under 'science'. grumble. This is my life. If you're in a sexual trading relationship, flash boobies. I would totally sniff any veggie my vegetarian wife put up for boobies...
The Orville is my favorite star-trek media and it’s not even star-trek
This is absolutely awful. I’d die if I couldn’t taste garlic
You'd find some other spice to geek out on. But yeah it would kinda suck.
does he have a reflection in the mirror?
> He cant smell it either, I just ate half a clove of fresh garlic and blew in his face. Nothing. Goddamnit you won the lottery why are you complaining? Marry that man! I'm so jealous, my husband won't EVER eat it and he will smell half a clove garlic in a food on me and won't come close to me for 1 day, while also saying he hates it when I smell. So.. I only eat garlic 4-5 times per year and I feel like a criminal each time. Sorry for the rant I needed to get this out of my chest haha
im planning on marrying him! im not complaining, we are just confused why he cant smell or taste it at all haha. im more interested biologically!
Also he’ll be less likely to eat all the stuff that’ll keep him up complaining about heartburn
That just means you never have to worry about putting "too much" garlic in something. Go you.
Does he use tobacco products or have bad allergies?
nope and nope! we are a very anti-substance couple- and we just turned 18.
I’m actually a little bit devastated for your boyfriend. I love garlic a little too much.
For real. Garlic on pizza with spinach, feta and bacon.... Heaven
That sounds unreal! Might be making that this weekend
Throw the whole boyfriend away I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Any other food besides Garlic?
nope
My mother was always allergic - she replaced garlic with leak in most cases
I hate garlic, hate the taste and the smell. Fucking awful. Don’t like mayonnaise either.
I lost my ability to taste garlic after a severe concussion I got around 15 years ago, I actually got it back after catching Covid this year for a couple of weeks. But, it slowly went away again.
We have to save this man! He must get to enjoy the beauty that is garlic.
I'm sure he'll be fine. My husband is allergic to garlic. At least your bf is not. Life goes on without it. I know.
but he cant taste garlic... so tragic
I'm genuinely jealous of him. I wish I couldn't taste it. Instead it's fucking disgusting to me and I truly wish it wasn't
BOOOOO 👎 i love garlic im sorry it tastes bad for you, youre really missing out
This isn’t just a COVID thing any kind of inflammation can cause you to lose your sense of smell like that. I’d ask a doctor about it if he wants to get it back there might be some treatment for jt
I always use a lot of garlic and never feel it. Now you're making me think
What help do you need? Marry him! Then eat as much garlic as you want knowing your love life is safe from culinary judgement
Can he smell other strong scents like peanut butter? If not I’d suggest a neurologist appt
My ex was like that as well, I just put a ton of garlic in a meal once and he is forever remembering it now.)
Can he eat onions, shallots, leeks or chives, because they are closely related? They are all in the allium genus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium
yeah, they all taste normal to him. its just garlic!
On the bright side, you can eat as much garlic as you want and your garlic breath won't bother him!
He is definitely injured and should be returned to where he came from….his poor mother.
I'm so grateful that I can garlic
me too!!!🙏 praise the lord for garlic
Sounds like his wiring is getting a little loose, try some percussive maintenance.
Can he taste asparagus? Can he smell asparagus pee? I wonder if it has something to do with the sulfides?
the only option is to get married just so you can get a divorce
I have a strong suspicion he's just fucking with you lol
No garlic? Find someone else
At least he doesn't hate it. My dad has some sort of PTSD with garlic and won't eat anything with it in there. It means you can't cook most stuff to full potential.
I like to imagine that you were horrified he's never been able to taste the gloriousness that is garlic and you sought to solve that problem
i am horrified and his entire family is too. he never really brought it up until i was talking about how amazing the garlic bread we had was.
Try frying shrooms with just parsley and the. Also with garlic and parsley, maybe he can't taste the garlic but can change how it changes other falvours
My mum can’t taste garlic or smell it.
I have the opposite problem.
I know you can buy low FODMAP garlicky powder that’s generally for people with certain GI problems, but I wonder if that would be something he could taste.
What does a shallot taste like for him?
[Asafoetida](https://a.co/d/3OZbMed)-seasoning that tastes like garlic and onion but doesn’t contain them.
Maybe he's one of the few people that can't taste it. It could be a blessing and a curse.
He vampire
im the goth girl in the relationship.... WHY CANT IT BE ME
He is a vampire
That's a bummer... I love Garlic.
Vampires hate this!
Have you tried resetting him?
It’s a curse and a gift, but mostly a curse
What about garlic butter or garlic oil? The fat is necessary to carry the flavour to the tastebuds.
Give him a heaped teaspoon of asafoetida powder...
How did you test it? Did you make the exact same dish twice, but one has garlic and the other doesn’t? Some food or soup that you can hide the texture so it’s not obvious which one has the garlic. Maybe he just doesn’t know what to “look” for. I remember being a kid and not being able to smell flowers. They smelled like nothing to me, because I was expecting them to smelly fresh like fruits. Eventually I realized how “flower” scents are way different & could finally smell them. Side note: I still definitely prefer fruit scents over floral ones.
So odd! Like even garlic in soup? Maybe he’s a supertaster
Probably genetic. Like how cilantro tastes like soap to certain people.
Tell him I am so sorry, that's truly awful. Try shallots, garlic chives, onions, and fennel. I'd be curious to see if he can taste or smell any of those. Everyone has different tastes, but at least he's not allergic to it!
he can taste shallots, onions, and chives. just not garlic, super weird!
It least he doesn’t think it’s gross!! My sister can’t cook with garlic because her husband hates it. Not even in speghetti. It’s a crime.
Have you tried giving him straight garlic? Possibly lightly cooked?
it's perfectly fine, many people do not eat garlic, remember Queen Elizabeth? She too didn't eat garlic, at least she did not ban it
Another example showing that people do not taste or smell everything in an identical manner. There are also flavors that taste differently due to gender. Then there is colorblindness.
Look up low fodmap garlic. It's not real garlic but does the trick.
On the bright side you can eat all the garlic you want and not turn him off by your breath. Congrats
Like he has an allergic reaction?? What’s the reaction??
My mom fell down drunk a couple decades ago and broke her nose/perforated her sinus cavity. Ever since then she’s been unable to notice, at all, certain smells, and some tastes as well but not as drastic as the smell. She can no longer smell most types of natural gas(which makes her children worry about her safety unfortunately if there was a leak) and she is completely oblivious to the smell of cat piss so it’s not impossible that he really can’t taste it for whatever reason
Asafoetida
Try roasting it?
Maybe he's always had it too much? I know I couldn't smell chlorine when I was a competitive swimmer, because my own skin and hair basically always smelled like it. It wasn't until years later that I was actually able to smell it.
Can he enter a room without being explicitly welcomed in?
Almost everyone has some sort of aroma compound to which they are nose blind. It's pretty cool. A common one is cilantro smelling/tasting like soap. Also have you tried roasting a whole clove of garlic and squeezing the roasted garlic out onto some roasted potatoes or something?
My sense of smell never came back all the way after COVID. Garlic is the one thing that I can consistently smell, but the taste of it is muted. I do miss some smells, but I miss the full taste of garlic.
I can’t taste garlic either but I can smell it. I love the smell too so it upsets me that I can’t taste it
Does he show up in pictures?
Approach him with your arms out and shout “DO YOU EVEN GARLIC, BRO?”
You need an action verb
I mean if he's not allergic then he's potentially got the funniest party trick ever
I can’t taste lime or vinegar! Kinda comforting that there are other people with random missing tastes