returned to US and now American food tastes/smells funky

[wanderlust]

Anyone else ever experienced this?

I was away for a week and a half on vacation. Coming back, the food smelled/tasted bad. Not all of it, mind you. The worst was the fast food in the airport (McD's). Specifically, the grease smell had a chemical odor to it. Other places, too. Food in the US has a certain cocktail of pesticide/herbicide residues - glyphosate, for instance, is used less outside of North America. There are also preservatives and additives here that are rarer elsewhere. First trip grocery shopping after returning, the store seemed to have a smell to it as well.

It's not the first time I've had this happen either, and one other person I knew reported a similar story.

[E Irizarry R&B Singer]

Anyone else ever experienced this?

I was away for a week and a half on vacation. Coming back, the food smelled/tasted bad. Not all of it, mind you. The worst was the fast food in the airport (McD's). Specifically, the grease smell had a chemical odor to it. Other places, too. Food in the US has a certain cocktail of pesticide/herbicide residues - glyphosate, for instance, is used less outside of North America. There are also preservatives and additives here that are rarer elsewhere. First trip grocery shopping after returning, the store seemed to have a smell to it as well.

It's not the first time I've had this happen either, and one other person I knew reported a similar story.

Fast food even in South America seems more natural because it spoils pretty quickly. Like Renata says, any
food that doesn't spoil isn't food.