Losing One's Taste

Fallacy: We lose our sense of taste whenever we catch a cold.

Fact: The most frequent complaint from people suffering from a cold is that they have lost their sense of taste. This, of course, is incorrect. Laboratory tests of such people have shown that their taste buds are functioning normally. What then must then be the underlying cause for their complaints?
Taste and smell are two senses closely, related. Many times we often label as taste what really is smell. This is not surprising , though. When food is in the mouth, its odors pass through the nasopharynx, the link between the nasal and oral cavities, to the receptors of smell.
Most people are not aware that the olfactory system is thousands of times more sensitive to odor than the taste system is to flavors. So, when the nasal passages are blocked by a cold, it may seem as if the ability to taste has been lost. Actually, what is missing is the smell of the food that is being eaten