TikToker Shares Secret Family Recipe For Regaining Sense of Taste After COVID-19

One of the most devastating side effects of COVID is the loss of taste. If this has never happened to you (either from COVID or for another reason, such as a sinus infection), you can’t imagine how unsettling it is. Not being able to taste your food makes eating a pleasureless chore.

Some people have found a sense of humor in being unable to taste. TikTok is full of videos of those who have lost their sense of taste because of COVID and take food challenges to shock their taste buds awake (or just make other people gawk at the spicy, pungent, strange things they can eat without so much as batting an eye). But one TikToker is sharing his family’s secret recipe for reviving the taste buds – and it is bizarre.

His name is Kemar Gary Lalor, a 23-year-old architecture student in Toronto. His mom tested positive for COVID and lost her sense of taste, but later regained it. When he experienced the same thing, he asked her what the remedy was. So she showed him. It comes from Jamaica, where her mother used to employ it when necessary.

It’s pretty simple: cook an orange over an open flame until it is completely black on the outside. Peel off the burnt skin, then combine the cooked orange with brown sugar in a bowl. Then eat it.

Lalor did as his mother told him (good boy) – and it worked! So he made a TikTok video so others could cure themselves, too.

@toosmxllHow to get your taste buds back #remedy #homeremedy #lifehacks #hacks #healthylifestyle #health #fyp ♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre

The vid has since amassed over 20.9K likes and has been shared over 3.4K times. Many people have gotten in touch with the TikToker to tell him that their sense of taste and smell have been restored thanks to the recipe.

One doctor, for whom the remedy worked, even posted his own video explaining the recipe is a form of “olfactory training,” or physiotherapy for your senses.

@dr.karanr#stitch with @toosmxll oranges to the rescue? #fruit #orange #learnontiktok #schoolwithdrkaran♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre

“Your olfactory nerve, the nerve involved in your sense of smell, has fibers in your brain and nose that contribute to your ability to smell and, in turn, taste,” he told BuzzFeed News. The nerve gets damaged due to COVID, but it can be repaired. “A similar concept applies to olfactory training — however, instead of physical rehab, this would involve attempting to stimulate the olfactory system [through] exposure to strong smells.”

Like any kind of cure, it doesn’t work the same for everyone – but it certainly can’t hurt. And if you lost your sense of taste, trust us, you would do anything, even eat a burnt orange, if there was the slightest chance you’d get it back.

Cover Photo: TikTok

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