Why do you have a hard time tasting things when you have a cold?

Answer 1

Taste is related to smell. When your nose is congested, you can't taste things aswell. For example plug your nose when your feeling better, and try to taste something. You can't taste it aswell.

Answer 2

it makes everything taste like wet diarrhea

When you have a e.g. cold sometimes bacteria start growing and reproducing in the throat and the back of your lips, where the taste buds are. You can't taste a lot when you have a cold and bacteria are on you throat

or

Because the sensation of taste is closely tied to your sense of smell. The combination of your taste buds and the smell of food is what makes your brain recognize a taste. When you have a cold, your nose gets clogged and you can't smell as well as you normally can, so in your head, foods don't taste the same because you're not getting the normal amount of "taste information" from your nose"

Answer 3

your nasal passage way cant smell what your going to put in your mouth and it doesnt know what it is going to taste like on your taste buds so it causes no taste from a thought of sickness.

Answer 4

Most of what we consider "taste" is actually smell. Colds result in mucus and inflammation, both of which inhibit your ability to smell.

Answer 5

your taste is attached in some way to your nose, the common cold of course blocks your nose thus stopping or lowering your ability to taste some foods.

Answer 6

Odor is a large part of the overall "taste" of your food, so when your nose is stopped up, food doesn't taste the same as it does when you're also smelling it.

Answer 7

You lose your ability to smell the food, when you have cold. Smell is integral part of the 'taste'. So when you can not smell the food, your ability to taste the food is seriously hampered.

Answer 8

Because our throat gets irrigated