I have been on a low calorie diet plan for just over 2 weeks now and before I started (even during at the first week) I ate dill pickles all the time, last night at dinner I decided to have a pickle with my food and could not eat it because the saltiness was just too much for me, this is very odd to me as I LOVE pickles, what gives? is it just because I am not eating as much food with salt while on this diet plan? has anyone else noticed this with a low cal diet plan? I would hate to not be able to eat pickles!

I tried looking up some info on this sensitizing of flavors and came up with hardly anything so any resources for info on this would be helpful as well, thanks

As Ever
Me

I can't say that I know much about 'sensitizing' of flavors, but I do know that dieting and eating healthier has made me much more sensitive to salts, vinegars, MSG, sweetners, etc. I chalk it up to the fact that when we diet, alot of us go 'natural' by eating whole foods like veg, fruit, legumes and whole grains. Those are all additive-free, so when you go back to the junk you were eating with the page-long list of chemicals and names of ingredients you can't pronounce, you have a whole new awareness of those 'additives'. It's really quite a remarkable discovery!

As for pickles, well, they're Pickled ~ So, it makes sense they will be ultra salty/tart/vinegary. But they are at least processed in a 'natural' way, with natural salts and vinegars. A pickle is a much better choice over a bag of Doritos, a McDonalds meal, a bowl of Top Ramen, etc - all of which have unnatural salt-like-additives. I hope that makes sense.....

Something similar happened to me, but not in as little as two weeks. I do a lot of cooking and I'm very careful with the salt. Now my parents think that I cook with no salt, and to me it tastes perfectly fine. But if I eat something that they think it's just fine, I find it salty. I guess your taste adjusts as you change what and how you eat.

As far as the pickles (I love them too), I try different brands to find ones that are not so salty. Maybe you got an odd pickle in the jar.

Its not really a low cal diet, but the less salt you eat, the more you notice salt in foods. I hardly eat any added salt so sometimes when I go out to eat, foods can taste really salty.

You could try making your own pickles or just try another brand. Some are saltier than others.

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I used to have huge cravings for salty foods, and not much interest in sweets. Now, I'm always craving creamy sweet foods (pudding, ice cream, froyo, regular yogurt, etc), and don't want to eat the chips that are still in my cupboard. The only factor I can think of that's changed is that I count calories, but I have no idea how that changed my cravings!

Salt, sweet, bitter, and sour - all of these do seem to have a sensitization component. The more often and more intensely your food tastes of these, the less sensitive your become to them, and likewise the less you eat the more sensitive you become.

This is why some foods like coffee, dark chocolate, moldy cheeses (blue, gorgonzola...) bitter vegetables..... to a degree are "aquired tastes." The more often you eat them, the better they taste, because you become less sensitive to the bitter components.

I have a greater sensitivity to salt than most people. I can't stand most chips and canned soups because they taste horrible to me. I still enjoy pickles, but have found that I definitely usually prefer the brands that are lower in sodium (often, but not always the store brands) , so even if you've become more sensitive to salt, it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy pickles. You could also rinse the pickle, or let it sit in a bit of water for a few minutes. This will remove some, but not all of the salt (but also some of the sour) flavor.