Eliminating the ‘Yuck’ Factor

J ust a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down . . . Not!

The next time you take a throat lozenge or a swig of antacid, remember that a lot of time and money went into making sure it’s reasonably tasty. Really.

Pharmaceutical firms--recognizing that the word yuck was born shortly after the first cave children were given castor oil--have been making strides in the taste department. With so many over-the-counter medicines on the market, they’re pushing flavor perhaps as much as they’re pushing a medicine’s ability to cure what ails you.

Fruit is in: Orange-flavored, lemon-flavored, cherry-flavored. Colors are also in: Reds, greens, yellows.

Does this mean it’s possible to confuse cherry-flavored cough syrup with cherries jubilee?

No way.

For the skinny on the taste of medicine plus a review of five cough medicines by our Taste Test Panel of Three (below from left: Susan Yan, Chris Lomax, Carmen de Artola), see Pharm Report, E3