Did your taste in food change after the transplant?

[jbeany]

I always was big on dessert.  I used to live for chocolate.  Now anything sweeter than a fruit flavored yogurt just about gags me.  I do fine with fresh fruit, but anything with white sugar in it tastes nasty.  I can finally have peanut butter, but my jar of Jif is untouched after the first swipe.  Pudding, cheesecake, cookies - none of it appeals.  Anyone else notice something similar?  I'm wondering if it's part of the transplant meds, or something that happened because of being stuck on IV nutrition for 2 months, and not eating anything at all.  Maybe the total lack of sugar all that time has readjusted how my body reacts to sugar?  I wasn't getting anything salty or savory either, though, and I can't get enough of those things now.

[monrein]

Could it have anything to do with your new pancreas and diabetes control?  I try not to eat too much sugar but I do like the taste of sweet.
I'm so so glad you're a miracle jbeany.

[Beth36]

My mom craves sweets like the dickens now that she's had her transplant..maybe it's the meds? Since she had a positive crossmatch transplant, she's on prednisone permanently and I have heard that causes you to crave sweets. I could be wrong, though 
Congrats on your transplant!!


Beth

[jbeany]

I'n on prednisone, too, along with prograf/tacro and myfortic.  Cravings I've got - just not for sweets!  I bought 3 cans of black olives yesterday - I'm halfway thru them already.  The family sized bag of lime chips isn't doing much better! 

[Darthvadar]

Hi JBeany...

Good to hear you're doing well...

I know a man who despised chocolate... Even as a child, he hated the stuff... At sixty, he got a kidney transplant, and now he can't get enough of it... He's insatable... We now call him 'Mr Chocolate Kidney'...

Maybe it's the meds, but he knows who his donor is, and when he met her family, they howled with laughter, and between tears of laughter they told him that their late mum was addicted to the stuff, and was NEVER seen without a bar of chocolate in her hand, her handbag, in her desk drawer, or in every room of the house... She used to go through eight or ten bars a day!...

Whatever the reason my friend is now addicted to chocolate, I know it has made one donor family very happy to hear it!...

[draven]

Since my transplant i cant stand anything too sweet or salty. it makes me feel ill. i stopped drinking sugary drinks and go for sugar free instead.

[kellyt]

Since transplant, but not immediately after transplant, I have been craving sweets every day.  Very different than how I was pre transplant.  Immediately after transplant and probably for three or four months EVERYTHING was really salty to me.  My husband got me a Jr. burger from a local fast food place that I love and it tasted like they dumped a bucket of salt on it.  He tasted it and he said it tasted fine.

[jbeany]

One of my friends was wondering if two months with no food cured me of sugar addiction.  Yeesh, way to go cold turkey!

[Hanify]

Just celebrate Jbeany!  We eat far too much sugar - so you're actually probably eating the diet the rest of us should have! 

[Chris]

jbeany, my taste in food also changed post transplant. Mine is different from yours though.with different food. I no longer can eat the hot and spicey foods I loved, veggies do not apeal to me as they use to, can't stand tomatoes to name a few. But I also have trouble eating post tx, if I try to eat or drink so much I get very nauseated and have  a few times.

[Golferchick]

My dad said that his taste changed but he thought it was due to the meds. He used to drink a pot of coffee a day and then after transplant barely drank any. Also quantity of food that he ate also changed.

[fluffy]

after my transplant i started drinking alot of tea even though i used to hate hot drinks, and i crave anything with curry for some odd reason. i remember hearing something about cellular memory so its probably that.

[jennyc]

I haven't had a transplant but i have been pregnant........ Do the meds for TX affect your hormones? If so wouldn't it be kind of like having pregnant cravings? I was a huge sweets person, after i fell pregnant i began to have a savoury tastebud, now i'm stuck with it. I still like a little sweetness, but no where near as much as before.

[kellyt]

I also noticed, and this is really gross, that my nasal mucus was extremely salty.  Extremely!  Very strange and gross.   

[cariad]

I haven't had a transplant but i have been pregnant........ Do the meds for TX affect your hormones? If so wouldn't it be kind of like having pregnant cravings? I was a huge sweets person, after i fell pregnant i began to have a savoury tastebud, now i'm stuck with it. I still like a little sweetness, but no where near as much as before.

Definitely. Some transplant meds ARE hormones (well, at least prednisone is) so yes, your hormone balance is going to be altered on it. Myfortic really screwed with my eating - I felt nauseated for the first few months and never wanted anything. I am adjusted to it now. I would say that pregnancy cravings are much more specific than what happens after transplant, but it probably does boil down to hormonal and other chemical changes.

I don't really buy into cellular memory, but I am fascinated with people's beliefs on the subject. I was really sick (viral meningitis) a few years ago and could not eat for about 10 days - to the point where the doctor told my husband they were going to have to put some sort of tube in my stomach. Luckily, I got out of there before they could do this. For about a year after, I wanted coffee (which I have never liked) and extremely spicy salsa all the time. I also started craving dark, dark chocolate. Then it just went away, I am back to not liking coffee, preferring milder salsas, and not really wanting any kind of chocolate. I think your body goes through so many major adjustments during these big medical events that any of them can trigger changes in taste, personality, whatever.

[Chris]

I also do not buy nto the cellular memory part. I always liked chocolate before and would prefer to eat regular chocolate over diet chocolate due to the awful taste and, well the laxitive the sugar free chocolate and candies had/ or still have. My appetite changed as soon as I they allowed me to have solid food after a week. Coffee crave has not changed though!