A Viral Hack Claims Eating a Burnt Orange Will Revive Your Sense of Taste After COVID-19
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Research shows that lost senses of smell and taste can be a lingering side effect for COVID-19 patients.
A viral social media hack suggests eating a burnt orange mixed with brown sugar can help people revive their senses.
Doctors aren’t convinced this trick works, but say people can try scent training if they are struggling with loss of smell and taste.
While there’s still no cure to loss of taste and smell due to COVID-19, those who are stuck experiencing the strange symptoms have started to turn to tricks and viral hacks to desperately get their senses back. One of the more popular TikTok trends has people claiming a burnt orange is the ultimate cure; but does it actually work?
Loss of smell and taste (medically known as anosmia and dysgeusia, respectively) wasn’t one of the original COVID-19 symptoms referenced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic, but it was eventually added to the agency’s official list after a growing body of research found that many people who contracted the virus experienced the unusual symptom.
But do people still lose their sense of taste and smell when diagnosed with new COVID-19 strains? “It appears with the Omicron surge, loss of taste or smell isn’t common and is not a common COVID-29 symptom for Omicron infections,” says Monique White-Dominguez, D.O., lead physician at Sameday Health. “ Loss of taste and smell has gone from a hallmark symptom of COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic, to a relatively rare symptom with the recent surge of Omicron.”
Despite this, experiencing long COVID symptoms, specifically the loss of taste and smell, is still very common among those diagnosed early on with the virus. Recent research from August 2021 suggests that up to 70% of people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 also lose their sense of taste and smell at some point.
Another analysis of 2 million COVID-19 patients published in June 2021 revealed that 23.2% of patients who had contracted the coronavirus sought treatment for at least one “post-COVID condition” a month or more after their diagnosis. Of these long-COVID symptoms, lingering loss of taste or smell was referenced.
Enter the burnt orange hack. Social media is filled with testimonials from people who swear eating a charred orange mixed with brown sugar helped them regain their sense of taste and smell after having COVID-19. In one video, a TikTok user called this a “Jamaican remedy” before she eats the mixture and then says, “I waited two weeks for this.”
Another Instagram user said she was able to taste Dijon mustard after eating a burnt orange. She did point out, though, that it could have been a coincidence.
Meanwhile, another TikTok user said it “didn’t work” for her, and even former Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe mentioned trying it on her Instagram Stories. She didn’t have good results, either.
So, what’s the deal? Can this type of food challenge really help bring back a lost sense of smell and taste? We asked doctors for their opinion.
First, why do some people lose their senses of taste and smell after COVID-19?
This is a common side effect of viruses that replicate in your nose and throat, says Richard Watkins, M.D., infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical University. Viruses can cause inflammation and swelling in your nasal passages and that can cause congestion, tamping down your senses in the process.
Additional research aimed to explain exactly why COVID affects taste and smell found that COVID-19 attacks cells in your nose that aren’t directly responsible for your sense of smell but eventually cause inflammation that makes your senses perform inefficiently. Other theories point to potential brain damage from COVID-19 that could impact taste and smell.
But why this symptom lingers in some people is not totally clear. “The receptors for the virus have been found in the special lining of the nasal cavity that contains the olfactory—smell—nerves that are the first to detect odors in the air,” explains anosmia researcher Eric Holbrook, M.D., director of rhinology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and associate professor in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Although these receptors have not been found on the nerves themselves, the surrounding damage from the infection likely causes the smell loss.”
Your sense of smell is closely connected with your ability to taste, he adds, hence the loss of smell and taste. (Important to note: COVID-19 does not make you physically lose taste buds!)
The good news: The epithelium, which lines your nasal cavity, have cells that can divide and regenerate those damaged nerves, Dr. Holbrook says. “But they have to travel back to the brain and make proper connections. That can take time,” he says.
What is the burnt orange hack, and can it really help bring back your sense of taste or smell?
The recipe is pretty simple. You char an orange over an open flame (most people do it on their gas stovetop) and then peel or cut off the skin. You mash up the fruit, mix it with some brown sugar, and eat the concoction. People who swear it works seem to be able to taste the mixture immediately, while others say it does nothing—or maybe helps prompt their taste buds to react in a few hours.
But doctors aren’t totally convinced. As of right now, the evidence is “obviously anecdotal,” Dr. Watkins says. The trick hasn’t been studied and positive results haven’t been replicated by researchers, so “from a scientific standpoint, I doubt it works,” he adds.
Dr. White-Dominguez agrees. “There are many hacks to try to regain taste and smell after an active COVID-19 infection, the key here is time and patience,” she says. “Eating different combinations, eating robust foods combined with other strong flavors, is not likely to energize your senses to the point of fully recovering the lost taste or smell. There's just no solid evidence to support that particular hack.”
It’s difficult to even theorize why this particular hack would work, says Iahn Gonsenhauser, M.D., chief quality and patient experience officer at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “There is nothing we’re aware of that would explain why this would be a successful, viable solution,” he says, given that losing your sense of taste is typically linked to losing your sense of smell with COVID-19. As a result, eating strong flavors alone is unlikely to jumpstart your sense of taste if your sense of smell still isn’t there yet.
Dr. Holbrook agrees. While eating this particular food mixture isn’t necessarily harmful (as long as you’re careful around open flames), there’s really no evidence that it works and is “another lesson for the abundance of false claims that permeate social media regarding ‘therapies’ for all different types of health disorders, including COVID-19.”
There’s also this to consider, per Stanley H. Weiss, M.D., a professor of medicine at both the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the Rutgers School of Public Health: People who believe the hack worked for them may have already been recovering their sense of smell.
Ok, so what else can you do to help revive your senses of taste and smell after COVID-19?
It’s not a popular answer, but generally, you simply have to wait for the senses to return. Dr. White-Dominguez says it could take an average of four to eight weeks, or even longer, for your senses to return back to normal.
In a new small-scale study, researchers found antihistamines may be able to relieve symptoms of long-haul COVID, but most experts agree more research needs to be done on the theory.
Additionally, there have been some experiments done with “higher dose steroid therapies,” to try to reduce inflammation and swelling in the nasal passages in hopes of returning a person’s sense of smell, but nothing meaningful has come from it yet, Dr. Gonsenhauser says.
However, Dr. Holbrook says you can try something called “scent training,” which involves finding a strong smell and inhaling it while focusing on what the scent should be like. This may work by stimulating the nerve cells in your nose damaged by COVID-19, explains Dr. White-Dominguez. She adds it can also retrain the brain to make connections back to familiar scents.
Some research has shown people have an improvement in the ability to smell compared to a control group after undergoing scent training. “Not everybody responds the same,” Dr. Holbrook says, but “this is something non-invasive and easy to perform and is recommended.”
Here’s how to try it: Gather a few strong scents in your home (think: cinnamon, mint, and citrus) and inhale for 10 to 20 seconds while thinking about what the scent would be like. Essential oils are also helpful. Dr. Holbrook recommends using powerful scents, like rose, eucalyptus, lemon, and clove. Continue doing this on a daily basis.
If you’re struggling with the loss of smell and taste, you should also check in with your primary care physician. “There’s so much research being done in the field that something new may come along,” Dr. Weiss says. Your doctor may be able to steer you toward a new treatment or, at the very least, refer you to a specialist who can evaluate you further.
And hey, if you simply want to eat an orange—go ahead. The fruit is rich in vitamin C and other good-for-you nutrients. Just don’t get your hopes up for a quick fix.
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