Medical Oncologist
Food and taste
Food aversions during chemotherapy
Two things are happening. Taste and smell have changed, so the food no longer tastes as it should, and if it was eaten close to a bad episode of sickness the body has connected the two and now produces nausea at the thought of it. That learned response is durable, and it narrows the diet fast — which is why protecting the foods you will need matters more than arguing about any one dish.
NG
Medically reviewed by Dr. Naresh GunduConsultant Medical Oncologist · MBBS, DNB (Internal Medicine), DM (Medical Oncology, AIIMS) · last reviewed September 2026, next review due September 2027
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The short answer
Why has a favourite food suddenly become unbearable?
Two things are happening. Taste and smell have changed, so the food no longer tastes the way it should. And if it was eaten close to a bad episode of sickness, the body has connected the two and now produces nausea at the thought of it.
The second is a learned response and it can be surprisingly durable. A dish eaten on the afternoon of a difficult cycle can be refused for months or years afterwards, long after taste has recovered and long after anyone remembers why.
Why it is worth taking seriously
Because it narrows the diet fast. Someone who has developed aversions to rice, dal and milk within a few cycles is left with very little, and the weight loss that follows causes treatment delays. Each aversion is small; together they are the reason eating stops.
The simplest prevention is not serving a much-loved dish on treatment day. It costs nothing and it protects the foods you will need later.What tends to go
The foods most often refused, and why
Knowing the usual pattern helps you plan around it rather than be caught out dish by dish.
Red meat
The commonest single aversion, usually because it turns metallic rather than because of any association. Move to chicken, fish, egg, paneer, dal and soya rather than dropping protein from the diet.
Helps
- Marinating in curd and lemon
- Serving it cool rather than hot
Tea and coffee
Frequently among the first to go and often among the last to return. The smell is the trigger as much as the taste, so serving it cooler or in another room sometimes helps.
Anything with a strong smell
Fried food, fish cooking, strong masala, onions frying. The smell does the damage before the food arrives, which is why cooking away from the person matters so much.
Cook with a window open, or let someone else cook.Very sweet things
Sweets, mithai and sugary drinks often become cloying and unappealing. This is inconvenient when calories are needed, so look to ghee, milk and nuts for energy instead of sugar.
Whatever was eaten on a bad day
This one is unpredictable and is the reason for the rule about favourite dishes. It can attach to anything, including staples like rice or curd that you cannot afford to lose.
Water, occasionally
Some people find plain water becomes unpleasant. Buttermilk, coconut water, thin kanji water and milk all count towards fluid, and this is one aversion that must be worked around rather than accepted.
Not sure whether this applies to you?
Ask an oncologistPreventing them
Protecting the foods you will need
Keep favourites away from treatment days
Do not serve the dishes that matter most on the day of a cycle or in the two or three days after. Save them for the good week, when they are likely to be enjoyed and no association will form.
Choose something expendable for the hospital
Take a plain snack you do not much care about. If sickness follows, losing that one is no loss. Many units suggest exactly this and it is rarely explained why.
Get the sickness controlled
Aversions form around episodes of vomiting. Anti-sickness medicine taken preventively on schedule prevents the episodes, and therefore prevents most of the aversions.
Keep the cooking away from the person
Most of the aversion is built by smell. Cooking in another room, with a window open, and serving food cool, protects far more dishes than any other single measure.
Rotate what is offered
Relying on one or two safe foods risks losing those too. Spread the load across several options so that no single dish becomes linked with a bad day.
!
One thing that cannot wait
If aversions have narrowed things so far that the person has stopped drinking, that is no longer a food problem. Someone on chemotherapy who cannot take fluids becomes dehydrated within a day or two, and that strains the kidneys. Go to the nearest emergency department the same day and say clearly that they are on chemotherapy. A fever, or nothing staying down, needs the same response.
Undoing them
Bringing a refused food back
Most aversions fade, but not by themselves and not quickly. What works is gentle, repeated reintroduction after a gap, on a good day, with no pressure attached. What does not work is insisting, or serving a large portion to prove a point.
How to go about it
Leave the food alone for several weeks. Then offer a very small amount in the good week before the next cycle, when taste is at its best and sickness is at its lowest. Say nothing about it. If it is refused, take it away without comment and try again a few weeks later.
Change the form first
A refused food is sometimes accepted in a different shape — cooler, blended into something else, differently spiced, or eaten in a different room. Milk refused on its own may go down in a shake; rice refused plain may be fine as curd rice.
Do not let the kitchen shrink permanently
Families often remove a refused dish from the household menu altogether, and then nobody thinks to try it again. Keep a short written list of what has been dropped, and work through it every few weeks. Many come back once taste recovers after treatment.
If the diet has narrowed to two or three items, ask for a dietitian rather than continuing to experiment alone.Leave a number, we will call you
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Being straight with you
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot tell you which foods you will lose or how long they will stay lost. Aversions are unpredictable, they attach to different things in different people, and they last anywhere from days to years. Most fade over the months after treatment ends.
It also cannot tell you whether refusal is aversion or something physical. A sore mouth, a fungal infection, difficulty swallowing and nausea that is not controlled all look like fussiness from the outside and are treated completely differently. If refusal is broad and worsening, that is worth having looked at.
What to do next
Stop serving favourite dishes on treatment days from the next cycle onwards. Move the cooking away from the person. Keep a list of what has been dropped and reintroduce one item every few weeks on a good day. And if the list of acceptable foods is getting short, ask for a dietitian.
Questions we are asked
Common questions about food aversions
Will she ever eat it again?
Usually yes, though it can take months and occasionally longer. The association fades with time and with gentle reintroduction after a gap, offered in small amounts on a good day. Insisting or making an issue of it tends to entrench the aversion rather than resolve it.
Is this the same as just going off food generally?
Not quite. General loss of appetite affects everything; an aversion is specific and often strong, with real disgust or nausea attached to one particular food while others are accepted. People frequently have both at once, which is what makes eating so difficult.
Should we force a little just to break the habit?
No. Pressure strengthens the association rather than weakening it, and it can put someone off the meal setting as well as the dish. Offer a small amount without comment, and remove it without comment if it is refused. Repetition over weeks does the work.
He has gone off rice and dal. What do we do?
Substitute rather than argue — ragi, oats, upma, idli, khichdi, or the same rice as curd rice or kanji, which is a different enough experience to be accepted. Tell the team, because losing staples is when diets narrow dangerously and a dietitian helps.
Why does the smell bother her more than the taste?
Smell is a large part of what we call taste, and it also reaches the person before the food does, so it triggers the response earlier. Cooking away from her, opening windows and serving food cool rather than steaming address most of it.
Can aversions be prevented completely?
Not completely, but they can be reduced a great deal by controlling the sickness properly, keeping favourite foods away from treatment days, and keeping cooking smells away from the person. Those three measures protect most of what matters.
Water has become unpleasant. Is that possible?
Yes, and it needs working around rather than accepting, since fluids matter more than any food. Buttermilk, coconut water, thin kanji water, milk and cool weak tea all count. Ice chips suit people who cannot manage a drink at all.
Do aversions mean anything about the cancer?
No. They reflect taste changes and learned associations from treatment, not what the disease is doing. Whether treatment is working is judged on scans and tests. The one thing worth reporting is if weight is falling as a result, because that does affect treatment.
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Sources
- National Cancer Institute — Nutrition in Cancer Care (PDQ)
- Cancer Research UK — Taste changes and cancer drugs
- Macmillan Cancer Support — Eating problems and cancer
This page is general information, not a prescription. Do not change or stop any treatment based on what you read here. If anything is worrying you, contact your own treating team — or call our helpline and we will help you reach the right specialist.
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