Before I had my Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass in 2001, I loved mushrooms. I ate mushrooms with everything. All kinds of mushrooms. From Shiitake to Morels, I loved them all. After the RNY, mushrooms tasted like dirt to me. Really. As if I took a teaspoon of dirt and tried to eat it. It is 22 years later and mushrooms still taste horrid in my food.
I started taking Trulicity (dulaglutide) July 29, 2022. I thought it was a form of insulin and had no idea of the hoopla about the onslaught of ‘tides (semaglutide, dulaglutide, liraglutide, tirzepatide, etc.). I was losing weight, but was working to do that, so passed it off on my own actions and food choices. My Hemoglobin A1c changed, but it fluctuated and was still in the unhealthy range for a Type 2 diabetic.
On September 7, 2023, I started Mounjaro (tirzepatide). I sort of had an idea of what it was, but not being on social media or having watched television or commercials for several years, I was still fairly in the dark. I knew I needed to learn more, so started reading and learning. Within days, I was already losing weight, but I really wanted to lower my HbA1c. Weight loss was ancillary. Fun, but not the main reason for being put on, or taking, the medication.
Labs from two weeks ago? My HbA1c went from 6.8 to 5.1!! I am out of the diabetic range for the first time in 30 years.
Pizza Just Doesn’t Appeal
I’m only one month in on the tirzepatide, yet I have begun to have some crazy food changes going on. I just don’t want some foods anymore. Hmmm, that’s a too-weak way to describe that. I really don’t want to eat some foods because thinking about eating them makes me sick to my stomach. This is the weirdest thing ever.
I could eat pizza anytime. Day, night, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have bought those little round individual pizzas for years, eating two at a time. A few days after taking my first Mounjaro shot, I went to the fridge to get one (knowing I couldn’t eat two) out to microwave. I looked at it in the fridge drawer and my stomach lurched. I got it out and microwaved it anyway. I ate about five bites and was finished with it, nauseous the entire time.
Amaretto, Too?
Besides really expensive wine (which I can’t afford anymore), I only drank amaretto. Every once in awhile, I was buying amaretto to help cope with pain. I definitely wanted/needed it less on the Trulicity as I was losing weight, but during the first week on Mounjaro, I ordered a bottle of amaretto from Uber Eats.
I looooovvvveeee amaretto. Have since I first had it at 18 years old.
When I poured the delicious amaretto post-Mounjaro, I took my first sip, gagged, and spit it back into the glass. It tasted horrid! Had it gone bad? Had it been contaminated? I sniffed and it smelled wonderful as usual. I stuck my tongue in a new glassful and it was repulsive.
It wasn’t until I saw information about the GLP-1s possibly helping with addictions and how some people say alcohol tastes horrid to them that I was able to put the experience in context.
Food Aversion is Fine with Me!
I think food aversions to pizza and amaretto are great! I hope I have a lot of food aversions. I hope the idea of Uber Eats and fast food is so negative, I don’t go near them. Imagine the savings of calories and money!
There was a day when I was a food writer, mostly about food at Walt Disney World. If I was making a living tasting food I might be a bit more annoyed about my taste buds changing. Especially if I was not able to drink my Jarvis or Opus 1 Cabernets. But that isn’t my life anymore and I am loving not being attracted to food. I have made love to enough food to last five people’s lifetimes.
Abstaining is, as far as I can tell so far, the healthiest thing for my body… and mind. Let the food aversions commence!
all photos by Barb Herrera