How does pregnancy affect the senses of smell and taste?
When British supermarket chain Tesco asked pregnant women to come in and taste their wines in 2004, they weren’t advocating fetal alcohol syndrome. Tesco’s wine tasters don’t drink the wines, but they swirl them in their mouths for taste and then spit them back out. Why did Tesco want pregnant women, of all people, to do this? They were hoping to take advantage of pregnant women’s noses and taste buds in order to procure the best wines for their customers. Tesco’s campaign was inspired by the chief wine taster at the chain, who became pregnant and reported that her experience in tasting wine became much more pronounced [source: Sample]. She’s not alone in finding her senses shifted: Pregnancy books warn about the effect, and several studies in w