95: Post-COVID Taste Loss with Rebecca Ma
Listen now
Description
When we think about COVID, we usually think about the short term health effects and terrifying stories from the ICU. However, there’s a lot to learn about the ways that long haul COVID symptoms affect people. Those that experience long term symptoms are sometimes referred to as “long haulers” on Twitter threads, and you don’t see much covered about their health challenges across the media. But with the high rates of infection across the US and Canada, understanding how people will be negotiating these symptoms and recovery is an important element in understanding what comes next for all of us and how to help each other in the recovery stages of the pandemic. One of the symptoms of long COVID is a loss of taste, smell, and appetite. I’ve heard accounts of this in little snips across Instagram, but wasn’t really sure what that meant, or just how long long COVID really was. My guest this week, Rebecca Ma, is a Masters student of food anthropology in Idaho. She is also a COVID survivor who is experiencing long COVID. Her Instagram account caught my attention a while back, @postcovideatsandsmells, as it is a documentation of her experiences trying different foods after losing taste and smell during her COVID recovery. She discusses how old favourites aren’t as they were, and what new elements of food she gravitates towards through this. We talk today about her sensory experiences with food post-COVID, and how she uses her knowledge from anthropology to bring these experiences more public through her Instagram account. Learn More About Rebecca:  COVID Instagram: @postcovideatsandsmells Instagram: @rebeccamamoo
More Episodes
Diet culture on the internet is excellent at sensationalizing our food to the point of panic. I’m sure many of you have seen the videos across TikTok and Instagram where someone positions themselves as an expert and demonizes strawberries, bread, or my beloved potatoes. But what happens when we...
Published 11/12/24
Published 11/12/24
One downside I find when I spend too much time on the internet is that there’s an overwhelming viewpoint that the system is broken and there’s not much we can do to change that – or that food, in general, is disconnected from all other components of our lives. But I think these attitudes forget...
Published 11/05/24