The Guardian view on taste, smell and Covid: getting back our appetite | Editorial

Patients who have recovered from coronavirus yearn to be able to enjoy food again. Good cooking is a rare joy in these times

This is the first meal I've cooked in a year that in no way tasted or smelt revolting," a grateful reader wrote to Ryan Riley and Kimberley Duke recently. While the praise might sound underwhelming, it was heartfelt: the British pair's slim cookbook, Taste & Flavour, a free collection of recipes to help Covid patients enjoy food again, has won them gratitude around the globe.

An estimated 65% of coronavirus patients experience the loss or distortion of taste and smell, and 10% are left with long-term effects; for 3% it could be permanent. When many long Covid sufferers report persistent headaches, breathlessness and fatigue, the complaint might sound almost trivial; more curious than troubling. Yet the charity Abscent says that the 3.25 million people in the UK who develop smell loss - often after cancer treatment or head injuries - can experience isolation and depression. Medics and those with smell loss say it can be unexpectedly jarring and depressing, as if all the colour of the world has turned to grey. The especially unfortunate, like Riley and Duke's correspondent, find that favourite flavours and scents, such as coffee, chocolate or garlic, do not vanish, but become disgusting to them - redolent of decay.