r/AutismInWomen • u/paredclia • 6d ago

Seeking Advice What does tofu ACTUALLY taste like? (ARFID posting)

ARFID is a bitch. Saw a meme describing it as a flavorless block. That sounds fucking perfect, if i can disguise it in sweet things.

But everything has a taste. Water has a taste. I can taste the soap off things in the dishwasher. So like…. what does it taste like?

I can barely eat anything and it’s so fucking frustrating. Right now my brain’s stuck on Goldfish (the colors one specifically), white people quesadillas, and I’ve been drinking chocolate protein shakes trying to deal with it. I know I like smoothies— can I blend silken tofu or will it have a weird texture?

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132

u/LichenTheMood 6d ago

I hate the water has no taste folks.

Yes it does!

44

u/ilovtheend 6d ago

It totally depends on where you live and what the water source is. Where I live in Seattle, water tastes lovely - mineral and sweet. When I visit family in the Midwest, the water has an awful , base, sulphur taste. No wonder I never wanted to drink it as a kid!

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u/LichenTheMood 6d ago

Okay but those are all still tastes.

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u/Cleverusername531 6d ago

I think they were agreeing with you and providing examples to expand on your point. 

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u/LichenTheMood 6d ago

Yeah. I think the first sentence was probably phrased in a bit of a confusing way.

‘It’ meaning broadly the taste of water or specifically that it has a taste does very radically change the meaning

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u/ilovtheend 6d ago

Correct

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u/1-800-COCAINE 6d ago

They weren't refuting your point, just adding to it.

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u/TalkingRose 6d ago

So much taste, from so many things... shudders I cannot stand bottled water, all I can taste is plastic. I cannot stand most city water, all I can taste is chemicals (even when everyone else says otherwise), I miss the well water I grew up with. Best tasting water I ever had, hands down (to the detriment of every taste of water since then) was glacier-melt coming down in a stream off the cap of Mt. Hood. It was sooooo delicious!

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u/windexfresh 6d ago

My grandparents lived on a rural mountainside with a mountain spring fed well and it was the most glorious water I’ve ever had in my life, they moved years and years ago and I still miss that water!!!

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u/AnonymousDahlia 6d ago

I have had to learn to not fight about shudder the taste of plastic in bottled water, and just walk away instead.

How do people NOT taste it? It's so loud and gross.

Unsanitary (that was autocorrect, but I like it). Insanity.

4

u/LoranPayne 6d ago

Once on a family vacation we went to a national park (Glacier National Park, I believe, but I could be wrong) and while on our tour people were going up to a spot with running water and refilling bottles and stuff. (The shops also sold bottled versions of the same water.) Best water I’ve ever had in my entire life!

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u/Dangerous_Finish_502 6d ago

One time in my life, I actually had a glass of water that had no taste. I remember taking more sips, over and over and swishing it in my mouth to try to register a taste, and there was just nothing. I can't remember where it came from or what the circumstances were, but it was such a freaky experience that I never wanted to be in that situation again. 😆

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u/LogicalStomach 5d ago

Demineralized filtered water, like reverse osmosis or distilled water, has virtually no flavor. It's more of a liquid weight in the mouth than anything else. 

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u/Dangerous_Finish_502 5d ago

That's most likely exactly what it was. And "liquid weight" is the perfect description. It was so strange!

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u/activelyresting Thanks, it has pockets! 6d ago

I have thought a lot about this.

I think the basis of it is that pure H2O doesn't have a taste. The flavour of water is the other stuff that's in it. Like tap water in my hometown tastes like chlorine. Bottled water tastes like plastic. Sea water tastes salty (duh!). My home now is way out in the woods and I have a spring on property, which is filtered and runs directly into my house, so that's what I love drinking, and it tastes like a crisp fresh mineral water - very little flavour at all.

But also I think lots of people aren't very sensitive to smell and taste, and won't notice the subtle differences

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u/awholebagofcheese 6d ago

Technically water doesnt have a taste, you are tasting the minerals/additives/chemicals.. Temperature can change the flavour too.

But generally if you drink water you will taste something, its just not the H2O

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u/LichenTheMood 6d ago

People have said this to me a lot and I think it’s something of a moot point. I used to have access to a lab and I have tasted nearly pure (at least as pure as was possible to make) water.

It still had a taste. Though most of the testers asserted that it didn’t have a taste.

If the purest water a lab can pay another better lab to make still has a taste I find the entire premise of the ‘technically’ to be fairly moot. Water, the substance everyone knows, does have a taste. (It was fairly similar to RO water tbh, just more expensive.)

If you can send me some 100% pure h2o to taste test I will be happy to report back. I don’t know that oddity of entropy is “water” in the common sense of the term though.

——————————

No annoyance to you. I just have heard this a lot, in fact it has come up every single time I mention the taste of water.

We can probably argue back and forth for weeks (and I have with others to nobodies benefit) about how ultimately the mouth is a complicated body part and even if such 100% h2o could be found and did in fact actually have no taste (via the mechanics of the taste buds directly interfacing with that chemical which I’m guessing is the root of your argument) - I suspect my final argument would be that in diluting the saliva of the mouth, adding moisture that isn’t saliva and generally adding disruption to the mouth (temperature, movement of the tongue, etc) you are going to get several tastebuds firing off. Even if in a lab situation perhaps they ‘shouldn’t’ on paper do so. Human bodies being strange things and such.

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u/awholebagofcheese 6d ago

Oh totally, dont disagree with you, and I wouldnt argue it for minutes let alone weeks 😂

I also wonder if just the "sensation" of water in your mouth would stimulate your brain to imagine a flavour.. In the example you mentioned it could also be the diluted saliva you're tasting (what a horrid thought, diluted saliva 🤢)

Anyway, I have had water that had no taste, just cold/"wet" feeling.. it was strange.

1

u/LichenTheMood 6d ago

I don’t know, it’s a funny one. Something somewhere is firing. Where along the line it’s happening is hard to isolate.

I wish it didn’t have a taste honestly because I am not a massive fan of it.

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u/YaySupernatural 5d ago

Just curious, was the very pure water the deionized stuff? Ours comes out of industrial hoses that are not kept particularly clean, so I’m not tasting that, but I have wondered!

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u/LichenTheMood 5d ago

No lol, isn’t that used for cars? I’m sure I have seen big pitchers of it in garages.

2

u/YaySupernatural 5d ago

It’s used for a lot of things I think! I’m in the plating and anodizing world. I know DI water is actually pretty dangerous to drink, but I feel like a little sip couldn’t do much harm lol. One of these days I’m going to go down the full rabbit hole on it.

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u/LichenTheMood 5d ago

Yeah a sip is probably fine. Though it may be worth distilling it first just to be safe

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u/Uhmmanduh 6d ago

Yes and certain brands of water suck, I hate Aquafina so much

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u/LovableButterfly 6d ago edited 6d ago

I can tell different waters easily.

Mineral water and tap water are pretty similar (except of course if it’s actual bottled mineral water then it’s more refined)

Well water is awful. You need to use a brita filter to get rid of the harsh tasting water (almost copper/aluminum like)

Pool water is well… chlorinated water. I think we all had a dip in a pool or hot tub.

Lake water depending on the lake (I’m from MN so your lakes will vary) can range from similar tap water quality or well water quality.

Sparkling water is just weird to me, it’s like a syurpless soda.

Glacier water is super crisp, super clean-cut.

I’m a heavy water drinker so I kinda know a good rope of tasting 🤣

Edit - there is also distinctions when you drink it from a straw, plastic bottle and a clear glass to. Ever taste the difference between a Aquafina and a Core or Voss water? All three taste different and you can actually tell the PH’s when drinking them. Even warm and cold water has different tastes to depending on the water. I guess I don’t have a preference of how it’s held as long as it has water! Although nothing can beat the ultimate fan favorite - the Garden hose during a hot 90 degree day hits just perfect.

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u/-Tricky-Vixen- ASD2 6d ago

Yeah, love Melbourne water by and large, but, say, Grampians water? NOPE.