Can you turn off your sense of smell/taste at will?

[Havanawinter]

Chatting with DH whilst watching the eating trial on I’m and I mentioned that if I encounter a bad smell I simply choose to stop smelling it. Likewise if something tastes bad I can switch it off sort of. I do it when drinking my iron enriched water in the morning. DH thinks that mad but I thought it was totally normal and I’ve never questioned it before.

YABU = can’t do this
YANBU = I can do this

On I’m a celeb*

I can't do that.

No - though I wish I could. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do this!

Did you teach yourself to do this, or did you just discover you could do it by accident?

I’ve always been able to do this and didn’t question it until this evening. I used to do it when eating horrible school dinners I didn’t like so I would be let out to play. It feels like I have a valve (?) at the top of my nose I can block at will to stop the taste/smell. It’s hard to explain.

I can do this. I thought everyone did but I’ve spoken to my children and they have no idea it can be done

I can do the opposite - I can 'open the valve' if I want to really smell or taste something.

Edit; I always wondered if this was similar to the flehmen response, but humans only have a vestigial Jacobson's organ;

www.petmd.com/cat/general-health/cat-sneering-what-flehmen-response

I can to a certain extent block smells, but not tastes and if a smell if strong, or more than just a whiff, then the blocking youre describing doesnt work for me

I can just turn off my nose. But it’s hard to describe. The valve system is a good way of explaining. My mother taught me this

I can block the back of my nose so I can't breather through and therefore can't smell. Other people have told me they can't do this.
Not with taste though.

I can turn off my ability to smell but developed it after having children and needing to change stinky nappies. I can smell a poo very quickly but then stop the smell affecting me once I start to change their nappy.

Yes, this describes it well.

I used to be able to do that when swimming to stop the water going up my nose.

Isn't this just stopping breathing through your nose? If you don't breathe through your nose, you're not using your sense of smell and so you can't taste much - just what your tongue can sense. Surely most of us can do this? I do it automatically whenever I go into a public toilet.

This is so interesting, it’s funny how we all have our quirks without even realising!

I can stop breathing through my nose in a public toilet or when changing a nappy, but can't turn off the gag reflex if I get cows milk in my mouth

There are people who can't do this?! I've never discussed it before, so thought it was something everyone did!

I think we better ask nurses, care workers and those people who do death scene cleaning. From my knowledge of reading American crime novels, and if you moonlight as Paddy Malone of the FBI, I gather that the trick is to rub Vicks under the nose.

I can do it to a certain extent when I have to chug down soluble tablets in water or unscrew that cup thing under the sink when it gets blocked but it's more of a breathing technique than anything.

There’s also the pretty well known thing of if you've been around a smell or taste for quite a while, you can't taste or smell it anymore. Like if you've been cooking and tasting something for a while, you can't tell anymore what it tastes like. This happens to me every time I make béchamel cheesy sauce. Technically sauce Mornay although I hardly ever bother with the egg yolk. I can't ever be be over cheesed until it starts going in strings.

And you can't smell your own house but everybody else's house has a smell.

What is this sorcery?! I want to be able to do it!

Since pregnancy my smell has never been the same, it was superhuman for 9 months and never dulled back down much. I wish I had some control over my nose!

Yes always been able to do this. Can't really explain how I just stop using my nose. It's like I can just close the holes at upper back of my mouth and only mouth breathe which instantly switches off smelling. Weirdly don't think I've ever discussed this with anyone. I'm doing it on and off now and think it is that. a tiny tightening of back upper palate? Must close the holes to nasal passage?

lol if anyone could see me now, the faces I’m pulling attempting to do this! Why can I not do this? I will practise!

Seems like you’ve got a high tolerance to things you don’t like and can put the bad smells / tastes aside. Not an expert but seems like a trick of the brain more than an actual ability to cease smelling / tasting things. Cool though.

I was confused about this until mentioning the “valve at back of nose”

You’re just blocking the air from flowing though your nose, I’d say pretty much anyone can do that. It’s just the same as having a blocked nose during a cold and losing sense of taste or smell. Thing is, that doesn’t actually turn your taste off, as you can still sense the difference between sweet, bitter, salty etc via tastebuds alone so this isn’t enough to prevent the unpleasantness of, for example, bitter tonic water 🤮

If there’s a bad smell, I find it just as (if not more) unpleasant to breathe it through my mouth knowing it’s foul. Makes me feel vulnerable.

I thought you had some special power for a moment 🤣 but alas, no.

Yes I can do this for smells & am a care worker, so it definitely comes in handy at times! Never thought of trying it for taste though. If something tastes nasty I just stop eating it.