A woman who recovered from Covid says she now has a condition that makes food takes like 'garbage'.
Natalia Cano, from the US, thought she was an 'anomaly' when she began noticing the bizarre side-effect from the virus.
However, after doing some research, the 20-year-old discovered that she wasn't as alone as she had first thought.
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In an emotionally-charged video posted on her TikTok account, which has since been accidentally deleted, Natalia explained that she was suffering from a condition called 'parosmia', which distorts a person's sense of taste and smell.
She said: "I don't think anyone understands how much this affects your daily life. It's not just that foods taste wrong, I mean, it is that, but it's garbage, dude, it's sewage.
"It's gasoline. It's ammonia. It's bitter. It's mold. Imagine if all of your favorite foods tasted like your least favorite foods. It is a step further. It is garbage and sewage.
"Imagine the worst smell that you have ever smelled in your life, and it's that but everything. It's everything."
Natalia explained that it was when she read an article from Healthline that she realised that it was caused by Covid.
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She went on: "It was affecting me so much that I developed gastritis, where every single meal I was throwing up, I couldn't get anything down for a very long time.
"Now I can, sure, but I have a severe ED because it's not that everything tastes bad, it tastes like sewage.
"It's been 10 months and [one] doctor told me that if it didn't improve within a year, there's a chance that I won't ever get it back. I have two months left, and it's not going away.
"Out of survey responders, 10 per cent of people who had Covid reported having this. There is no research, there is no cure. There's just hoping. I'm gagging at every meal."
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In another video, Natalia talked about which foods taste bad and what her diet looks like now as a result.
However, not everything tastes disgusting, she says.
Things like pulled pork sandwiches, Dr. Pepper, strawberry yogurt, sweets and most dairy products are unaffected.
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She said: "In general, things that are sweet taste less horrible to me, still not fantastic but I'm not actively gagging.
"Nothing makes sense, it's completely arbitrary. There's literally no rules."
Natalia also said that she tries to eat a couple of protein bars each day, though even that can be a struggle.
"It's not a lot of bites but it's a lot of protein so I force myself to eat it," she said.
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Since sharing her video, Natalia says she has been inundated with messages from people who have the same condition.
She said: "I had no idea that [parosmia] was an after-COVID symptom until I got it.
"[My original video] ended up doing tremendously well. I not only created but found a community of people that had my exact same experiences."
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/Natalia CanoTopics: Weird, Food And Drink, Coronavirus, US News, World News, Health
