The short answer
Cancer treatment can change how food tastes and smells. NCI lists changes in taste, called dysgeusia, among the mouth and throat problems treatment can cause, and offers practical suggestions such as marinating food, adding spices and switching utensils if food tastes metallic.
NCI lists changes in taste or smell among the mouth and throat problems cancer treatment can cause.
If food tastes bland, NCI suggests marinating foods to improve flavor or adding spices.
Trying cold foods is another suggestion NCI offers.
Switching utensils is suggested if a metallic taste occurs.
On this page
Choose how you want to read this
The whole article, with every detail and caution.
This page is for anyone whose food tastes metallic, bland or just wrong during cancer treatment. It covers why taste changes happen, what NCI suggests trying, and when to call your team.
A side effect people underestimate until it happens
Losing your sense of taste sounds trivial next to everything else treatment involves. It is not. Food is comfort, routine, family and fuel, and when it turns to metal in your mouth all four go at once.
It is also common enough to be listed as an expected effect. The National Cancer Institute names changes in taste, called dysgeusia, and changes in smell among the mouth and throat problems that cancer treatments can cause. The others on that list are dry mouth, infections and mouth sores, oral mucositis, sensitivity to hot or cold foods, swallowing problems and tooth decay.
NCI adds that chemotherapy drugs may cause an unpleasant chemical or metallic taste. Radiation therapy may change how sweet, sour, bitter and salty foods taste.
This is a known effect of treatment. It is not you becoming fussy.
What NCI actually suggests trying
The suggestions on NCI's page are modest and practical. They are worth taking literally.
- If food tastes bland, marinate foods to improve their flavor, or add spices to foods.
- Try cold foods. NCI says this may help.
- Switch to plastic utensils and non-metal cooking dishes if food tastes metallic.
That last one is the tip people are most skeptical about and most often surprised by. Trying a plastic or wooden spoon costs nothing and takes one meal to test.
Building on it without inventing rules
You will find long lists of taste-change hacks online, many of them confidently stated and none of them from a source like this one. Be a little careful with those, particularly anything that tells you to avoid whole food groups or to take a supplement.
What you can safely do is experiment within the directions NCI points to. Marinades and spices are a category, not a single recipe. Cold food is a category too. If something works one week and stops working the next, try another idea from the list.
Keep a short note of what worked. When you are tired and hungry, having a list of three things you know you can currently tolerate is worth more than any amount of general advice.
When the problem is not really taste
Sometimes food is unappealing because the mouth itself is sore rather than because flavor has changed. NCI's guidance for that situation is different: choose foods that are soft, wet and easy to swallow, and soften dry foods with gravy, sauce or other liquids.
It also suggests asking about pain medicine, such as lozenges or sprays that numb your mouth and make eating less painful.
If your problem is pain, chase the pain. Rearranging your seasoning will not fix a sore mouth.
When to contact your team
Mouth problems matter more when they get in the way of eating and drinking. NCI says that can lead to dehydration or malnutrition.
Call your care team right away, day or night, if you have:
- Pain in your mouth, lips or throat that makes it difficult to eat, drink or sleep.
- New mouth sores.
- A fever of 100.4 °F (38 °C) or higher, chills, or a sore throat.
- Burning when you pass urine, or any other sign of infection.
If you are in chemotherapy or your white blood cell count is low, call even if your temperature is normal. The CDC says a fever during chemotherapy means calling your doctor right away, because an infection can be life-threatening.
If you cannot drink anything, or you feel faint or confused, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
The part that helps most
Two things are worth holding onto.
First, NCI's note on recovery: taste changes from chemotherapy are generally reversible, and taste returns to normal in the months after treatment.
Second, this is a reportable symptom. If you are eating badly because nothing tastes right, that is a nutrition problem as well as a comfort one. Asking whether a dietitian is available to you is a reasonable request. Nobody expects you to solve it alone at the kitchen counter.
Sources
Common questions
Will my taste come back?
NCI's health professional summary says taste changes from chemotherapy are generally reversible, and taste returns to normal in the months after treatment. It does not promise a timeline for any one person, so ask your team about your own treatment.
Why do metal forks make it worse?
The mechanism is not explained on the NCI page, but the practical suggestion is there: switching utensils is listed among the strategies for when a metallic taste occurs. Plenty of people find it helps, and it costs nothing to try.
What should I do if nothing tastes of anything?
NCI says to try different foods to find ones that taste best to you. For bland food, marinate foods or add spices. Trying cold foods may also help. If red meat tastes strange, NCI suggests other high-protein foods such as chicken, eggs, fish, beans or dairy.
Are supplements the answer?
Not necessarily. NCI says no supplement is proven to treat cancer, and some supplements can be dangerous or change how treatment works. Do not start any supplement during treatment without checking with your care team first.
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Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher during chemo, severe pain, or trouble breathing: call your cancer care team right away, day or night. Call 911 for an emergency.
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Sources last checked: 2026-08-11 what this meansLast updated: 2026-09-29Next planned review: 2027-08-11
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Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and then compared with the sources listed on it, looking for statements those sources do not back up. That check is not a sentence-by-sentence record and can miss errors. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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