Please make this horrible metallic taste go away!

Ugh! I can't stand this metallic taste in my mouth any longer! So, I've been searching for answers. A metallic taste, sometimes referred to as transient taste changes, often accompany cancer treatments, throwing your taste buds for a loop and making food not taste right. If your sense of taste is off you can lose your connection to food and become less interested in eating. To overcome this, Chef Rebecca Katz has developed a simple tool that's called FASS, ("Fat," "Acid," "Salt," and "Sweet"), for tricking the taste buds and making the natural flavors in any dish soar. This little trick to achieving "yum", even during cancer treatments, will allow flavors to balance out, making them suitable for whatever is happening with your taste buds.

Fat coats the tongue carrying flavors back and forth like little magic carpets. Fats also add heft to a dish and give you a more satisfied feeling. Cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, organic butter, coconut oil or ghee (clarified butter) and cashew or almond cream work well. Adding a little extra good fat drizzled on top of your food will help erase some of that metallic taste. Fats are also good if you are experiencing mouth sores, since the fat creates a coating action that smoothes over a sore mouth.

Acid (especially citric acid) counterbalances anything in a dish that your taste buds perceive as having a too sweet or too salty taste. Lemons, limes and oranges are good choices. So, adding a spritz of lemon or lime can make even the blandest food taste better. This will also animate the other flavors in the dish, making them easier to taste and enjoy.

Salt "unlocks" the flavor in every food it comes in contact with. A pinch of salt will help if food is hard to taste or it's bland. The flavor should start to build towards the front of the mouth; you may need a couple of generous pinches to make the food come alive. Sea Salt is recommended due to its mineral content; it is also less bitter than processed salts.

Sweet-adding a sweet ingredient can cut an acidic or bitter taste in a dish. Grade B organic Maple Syrup is a favorite remedy. It has a more complex, satisfying flavor than refined sugar and very little is needed. Honey, agave nectar will also work in a pinch. A little bit of sweetness can help tame the metallic taste!

So, I've been trying these suggestions and they actually seem to be helping. Also, a big thank you to my friend Camille, for the ginger cake. It really does the trick in calming the stomach. Now, if I could just get the "Alien Baby" to calm down, I might be able to get back to work!