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Comment by nightski | Hacker News Reader

It honestly sounds like the author is desensitized to sweetness and dislikes bitter things in general. It's amazing how cutting out sugar/added sweeteners in general can greatly increase ones sense of taste. A little sweet can go a very long way. After a few months without sugar, eating a typical U.S. sweet treat feels like complete overload.

I've noticed this in a lot of my friends also. The ones that have attempted cut out sugar have all experienced the same.

Of course she could just dislike wine, which is completely fine. But all of the other things mentioned lead me to believe this might be a part of it.

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After two months of living(in Italy) off spaghetti with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese I noticed, that ketchup started to taste for me a lot more like some kind of weird, sweet(too sweet even) BBQ sauce than, well, ketchup.

Once you've tasted a real tomato, you can't go back.

Oh man, if you think that's bad, try filipino spaghetti sauce. It's practically frosting.

I'd imagine you also noticed how sweet most tomato sauce is in the US! I don't make pizza much at home, but for pasta sauce I always make my own. I can't stand the store bought sauce.

You could try Paul Newman's pasta sauce. They're not too sweet, and the profits go to charity. (I'm not aware of the full detail, but the company has been around a long time so I give them the benefit of the doubt).

That's orthogonal. Genetics decide what sensors you have, and exposure can lead to slow-moving calibration of them.

I've experience the effects of cutting sugar/salt as well. But no amount of additional exposure i tried has made me capable of handling alcohol or chili well. The desensitization would need to cover a gap that's far too large.

This is definitely a thing, but it's independent. I went off sugar for about two months. Apples tasted like candy. Celery and carrots were noticeably sweet (and delicious). Bell peppers tasted better. But bitter greens, especially kale, still tasted awful.

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