Has she been doing essential oil training? As far as I know it's the only scientifically validated method and it did a lot for me (although at soon 2 years my taste/smell is not fully recovered). I know it worked as I only regained the smells from the oils initially. Flowery oils were specifically good, as they likely contain thousands of different compounds that you find in many other smells.

One usually recommend four oils (of high quality preferebly): one citrus, one mint/eucalyptus, one spicy (e.g. cinnamon) and one flowery (lavendel did wonders for me, then geranium) to start out with. Smell each oil for 20 seconds every morning and evening, while thinking of/imagening the thing you're smelling. Since it's a neurological issue, the last thing supposedly helps. It usually took me 2-3 weeks from starting training until noticing any (very minor) effect at all, and much longer to regain a lot of it.

Sorry if she's already tried, hopefully it's useful for others. It can take a long time for the training to work.

There's a story that one of the founders of Ben and Jerry's had no sense of smell and that's why they pay so much attention to mouth feel.

Internet says it was Ben.

Some times I wish food was less enjoyable so I’d eat less of it. Not discounting your girlfriends experience - that’s horrible - but being able to switch off my sense of smell would help with sticking to my caloric intake!

It didn’t work that way for me. I was doing pretty well with my diet but when I lost taste/smell I ended up seeking out fried crunchy things for the interesting texture, as well as rich heavy foods that give that post-thanksgiving feeling just in order to feel something/anything from eating.

Damn. That sucks! I hope you got around it!

> Some times I wish food was less enjoyable so I’d eat less of it

Ozempic and similar medications have an even more subtle effect. Food is still just as enjoyable but the attraction to that enjoyment is gone.

You can eat a lot of tasty food without eating a ton of calories. Most calories are from excess of fats( like a ton of oil when a teaspon is sufficient, eating too many too sugary cakes that usually also have high fat content). I've succeed to stay at the same 'normal' weight when covid hit and less mobility just by paying attention to these