- Special Features
Blogs & Columns
- Fun & Games
A new study reports that having gastric bypass surgery can alter your sense of taste and smell.
The Medical Xpress reports that having Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery can lead to changes in appetite, taste and smell.
Gastric bypass is a weight loss surgery where the stomach is made smaller and the small intestine is shortened.
Lisa Graham and her colleagues at the Leicester Royal Infirmary held a study examining changes in appetite among patients who have had gastric bypass surgery.
The researchers sent out a questionnaire consisting of 33 questions to 103 patients. Of these patients, 97 percent have reported changes to appetite post surgery. 42 percent have reported a change in their sense of smell, and 73 percent noted changes in their taste sense, most specifically in their sweet and sour palate.
According to CBS News, these appetite changes affected their taste to foods like chicken, minced meat, steak, beef, sausage, bacon, lamb or ham. They also experienced a new dislike of fast foods, chocolate, greasy foods, pasta and rice.
Patients who have reported changes in taste lost about 18 pounds more than those who did not have a change in their appetite.
Graham reports that an exact cause to this effect is not known, but she believes it may be due to a combination of gut hormone and central nervous system effects.
"This study indicates that subjective changes in appetite, taste and smell are very common after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass," Graham said.