What to eat when you catch COVID

Covid finally got me the week before last along with the symptom anyone who tastes for a living most dreads - the loss of smell and taste.

Luckily it was only gone for four days and I know many people have had to put up with it a lot longer than that but my online community really stepped up with some great advice which, together with my own experience, might be a help if you’re experiencing the same symptoms.

1. First of all  I would take your lead from people who cook for a living. The advice from health professionals may be sound nutritionally but it’s pretty off-putting.

“You can boost your calorie intake by snacking more often and adding extra ingredients to meals” advises the otherwise excellent Zoe app. “For example, mashed potatoes, cheese or avocado to omelettes … or adding nuts or nut butter to porridge and sauces.” Just the thought of it is enough to make you feel nauseous.

2. It’s your awareness of flavours that disappears. With any luck you’ll still be able to detect the main tastes, especially sweet, sour and salty. (Bitter might not be so pleasant). I found citrus in the form of lemon, lime and orange powered through along with foods that were naturally acidic like blueberries and green apple. And sharply dressed salads, especially with a bit of raw garlic in the dressing.  

3. I also got a hit from spicy foods, especially fresh chilli and ginger. There’s a delicious Palestinian condiment called shatta  in Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley’s brilliant book Falastin which will perk up your tastebuds no end. Add spicy condiments like mustard, horseradish and chutney too. I also made a fresh tomato salsa with extra chilli, garlic and loads of lime juice which penetrated the fog. Greek salad with salty feta would also be a winner I’m sure.

4. A bit of crunch definitely helps to remind you what food tastes like. So salads again - cucumber was nice - crunchy toppings (remember that pangrattato I told you about last week) and toast. Hallelujah for toast. Especially with Marmite - I could have almost lived off that.

Creamy palate-coating foods also worked. I could pick up the taste of yoghurt and unusually enjoyed a flat white rather than my usual long black.

5. Keep checking your sense of smell by repeatedly smelling the same things. You can buy smell training kits online from a charity called Abscent which offers support to suffers from anosmia (loss of smell) or simply assemble your own from products that are familiar to you. My five reference points were coffee beans, eucalyptus oil, a particularly fresh, grassy olive oil, a smoky Islay whisky and my favourite perfume (Miller Harris L’Eau Magnetic).

6. There’s a free recipe book called Taste & Flavour by Ryan Riley and Kimberley Duke which you can download from the Life Kitchen website which contains some really punchy recipes that I still fancy now I’ve got my sense of taste back. Longstem broccoli with sesame and almond dipping salt anyone? Preserved lemon, feta and za’atar twists?

7. Even if you can’t taste you need to eat as my chef friend Barny Haughton wisely said so overcome any reluctance to accept an offer of a home-cooked meal on the grounds that you won’t be able to taste it. Maybe not 100% but his shepherds pie and my friend Claire Thomson of 5 o’clock apron’s spicy chickpeas with couscous were both deeply comforting when I was having to isolate.

Of course I recognise that I had Covid comparatively mildly even though losing your sense of taste when you’re a wine writer is not great and that what worked for me may not work for you but the answer is to keep trying until you find something - anything - that registers. 

You can find more tips from fellow sufferers on on my @food_writer instagram account especially the recent post on chillies. Do share anything that did the trick for you.

Image by DimaBerlin at shutterstock.com