Yesterday I mentioned that during several days in my chemo cycle I have a metallic taste in my mouth. But my tastes are slowly changing in other ways too. Its something that I was told might happen. Several cancer survivors that I’ve spoken to warned me that my tastes in food would start to change, and now several months into this journey (with several to go) I’m beginning to see what they mean. Luckily for me, it’s not that I’m adverse to foods I used to like, in fact it’s the opposite. In many ways my palate is growing.

The biggest change would be my desire for spicy foods. I used to be the kind of person who couldn’t stand spicy foods at all. Even “1 Star” on a menu rating system was too much for me handle. But now, as my sense of taste is slowly being destroyed by round after round of chemo drugs, I find that I really enjoy and even seek out spicier foods. Foods that I used to not be able to tolerate at all are foods that I’m now starting to find delicious.

Unfortunately there is a downside to my new desire for richer, and more intense foods. Heartburn. Before starting chemo I had only experienced heartburn on a few occasions. Now, it’s something that I can count on for 4 – 6 days of the two week chemo cycle. It started even back before I realized that I was suddenly attracted to more intense flavors, but I’m sure the new spices in my life aren’t helping this new form of digestional torture. Fortunately its thus far been controllable with the use of Tums and other chewable tablets so I would categorize it more as a mild annoyance in the grand scheme of things. But still, it’s a new thing for me.

The other thing (food wise) that I’ve noticed since starting chemo is that I can not get enough Mexican food. I could pretty much eat tacos or nachos for every meal of the day. My appetite for tacos cannot be stopped. Now I have always been a fan, and I don’t know if it’s related to my treatment, or if I’ve just never noticed it before, but if I had it my way, we’d be having tacos here every night. Sadly, I’ve yet to get Stine on-board with turning every night into Taco Tuesday. In fact, she’s probably even tired of Taco Tuesday at this point.