As is common among people who suffer from a cold, when the olfactory system, or sense of smell, is affected by congestion, peoples sense of taste is altered. However, following that notion, when the sense of taste is altered, people cannot smell properly.
According to findings published in Nature Neuroscience, when researchers took away the ability to taste in rats for an hour, they noted an alteration in their sense of smell.
The first part of the process was to feed one rat a piece of food and have the test rat smell the breath. The next day, researchers offered two different kinds of food, the one the rat ate the previous day, and a new kind. The test rat chose the food eaten the previous day.
They conducted the same study by altering the test rats taste vortex. The rat ended up choosing another food than when it had the ability to taste.
Researchers concluded that this study would allow more research to discover the inner workings of the brain, looking to pinpoint how humans choose foods.
If you have problems with congestion, trying an alkaline diet could help relieve symptoms.