Taste Aversion

The unbelievable has happened. One of my favorite foods, a substance that under ordinary circumstances I cannot live without, has become vile to my taste buds. I am almost in tears, y'all.

Every time I get a bad respiratory infection, I lose my appetite for a few weeks. It's usually a good thing; most people gain weight in the winter, but that's my thinnest time since I have at least one bad illness every winter. Occasionally, in addition to losing my appetite, I develop a serious aversion to some food that I ate while sick. Mostly it's meat that starts tasting funky, especially meat from hoofed animals (cloven and un.) Last year when I got bronchitis the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I went through a couple of weeks where Coke didn't taste right. Initially it was the only thing that would settle my stomach when the antibiotic upset it, but too much of a very, very good thing made even that old favorite taste off. I thought that was as bad as it could get, and when an icy Coca-Cola finally started satisfying me again, it was a joyous time, marked by the purchase of some pricy 8-oz. glass bottles to celebrate.

This time, it's my all-time favorite food that darn near sickens me. I have an aversion to chocolate. I know! I wouldn't have thought such a thing were possible, either.

It has been a week and a half since I've had a mid-morning Coke-and-candy-bar break at work. And longer than that since I nibbled on some Kisses or M&Ms while watching my favorite prime-time TV shows. I've tried milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and even made chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast yesterday, and I can't take more than a few bites of any of it before I get a sour taste in my mouth and my stomach starts churning. It's quite tragic.

You would think I would be happy about this. I could stay a lot slimmer if I didn't crave chocolate every day. But it's one of the great joys of my life. A life without brownies, Snickers, and fudge is a life almost not worth living.

As I write, I have a Mr. Goodbar in my little fridge at work, and it's that time of day when I usually take a break, wrap up a blog entry, and nibble some processed cacao. Said treat is not calling my name. My stomach is more intrigued by the Cheetos I brought for lunch. Oh, sad, sad day.

I blame my Cacao Reserve fetish for this. I kinda lived on those things while I was coming down with the cold from hell. I guess my body associates that taste with the agony of the later sinus infection.

Whatever the reason for losing it, I want my taste for chocolate back.

I am open to suggestions for treats so delectable that my buds can't possibly resist them. (If you're going to suggest "Ghiardelli chocolate squares", yeah, I tried that last night and after one square tasted the way the zoo smells I broke into sobs and admitted defeat.) I've got to get my chocolate groove back!