Schools have started, which also means that early autumn flu season has arrived, at least here in Finland. Taking care of hygiene, especially washing your hands, is the key for staying healthy during flu seasons. However, no matter how scrupulous you are with your hygiene rituals, you may end up catching an illness. I remember that as a child having a little cold was actually quite nice (at least in the beginning when you didn't feel like you were going to die), you got to stay at home, watch the TV and everything was brought to you. As an adult things have changed quite a lot. We have duties, we have to go grocery shopping, clean, and at least I don't want to fall behind with my studies just for being sick! Therefore, if you catch a cold or flu, you want to maximize your chances to get over the infection.
Everything I’m going to say may be crystal clear for you, but real life has shown me that the way you can affect your healing process with nutrition comes as a surprise to many. Therefore, it’s a topic worth writing about. When feeling terrible you may feel like comforting yourself with chocolate and ice cream, but are they really doing anything good for you? Since nutrition and eating are my favorite topics to talk about, let's have a look what you should and should not be eating while being sick.
Flu or Cold
You’re having a flu or just fewer, and all you want to do is lie under the duvet, watch the TV, and eat chocolate. You may not have appetite for real food, instead you want some sweets. However, sweets are the last thing you should be eating. In this kind of situation, you should at least try to eat healthy, nutrient-rich foods, fruits and vegetables, which may make you feel better, and facilitate the healing process. You can try to include garlic, ginger and citrus fruits and berries rich in vitamin C in relatively high amounts into your diet while you're sick. Those food items may relieve the symptoms and make your immune system fight harder against the pathogen, resulting in you getting better faster. Moreover, if you're struggling with swallowing or simply don’t feel disgusted about eating anything, you could try eating soups, which are a lot easier get down.
Stomach flu
You’re terribly ill, having stomach flu etc. and have no appetite whatsoever. In this situation, the very first thing to do is making sure that you’re drinking enough, since you’re losing plenty of water. Smoothies, juices, broths and soups are good choices, they’ll give you both liquids and energy, without forgetting the nutrients. If you’re vomiting and feeling really sick, don’t force yourself into eating solid foods. They’ll only come up quicker than they went down. However, if you’re able to get something down, eating something easy, bananas for instance, can be a good idea. Bananas don’t have a powerful taste or smell, so they probably won’t make you terribly nauseous. Moreover, bananas contain fiber, which may help with diarrhea, if that’s one symptom you’re suffering from. Remember that when you're sick, your body is fighting hard against the pathogen, so trying to get some energy in is vital!
One thing to stay away from always when you’re sick is alcohol. Alcohol will only worsen your symptoms. It’s no good for the functions of your immune system, and it can react with the medication you’re taking. For example, if you’re taking paracetamol (painkiller affecting the central nervous system) and drinking alcohol simultaneously, there's a greater risk of damaging your liver. Other painkillers, such as ibuprofen or aspirin may damage your digestive tract if taken with alcohol. Additionally, when you’re sick, you’re most likely already struggling with staying hydrated, so you don’t want to drink anything dehydrating, especially alcohol.
Take home message:
Being sick can make you lose your appetite, but eating nutritious foods filled with vitamins and minerals, liquid or solid, can help your body to heal quicker.
What do you eat when you're sick? 🤒
-Jasmin ❤
Alright, with a flu again... 2nd time for a month. This time it was clearly viral! It's a record for the past like 10 years or so. I use no pills.
However it's nice to see you again! ;) I recognised you, right after started reading the article...
Hey, it's been awhile since we've talked, it's nice to hear from you @trayan! I'm sorry to hear that you're sick again, I hope you'll feel better soon! Sometimes nothing seems to help get rid of the bug, all that you really need is time, so be patient!
Thanks for stopping by! :)
Thank you, @jasmink! :)
Chicken soup is the cure all in our house. Also vitamin C usually orange juice. And yes I have fond memories of being at home sick when I was a kid. Sometimes my dad would come home from work during the day to bring me food which he never would normally do :)
It's so funny that we have such nice memories from being sick as a kid, since being sick itself is not a nice experience. I remember that when I was sick as a kid, my mom treated me like a princess, I just lay on the couch, and food, tissues, whatever I needed was brought to me. Later on my mom told me that the reason she treated me that way was that otherwise I would've been spreading the bug everywhere. I was the type of kid who was all over the place and touched everything. But at least it gave me some nice memories!
Thanks for stopping by @steven-patrick, it's always such a pleasure to read a comment from you! :)
Love this post! I, too, remember being sick as a kid as a fun experience. It sure has changed! Well for me it has, my husband, on the other hand, gets treated just like a kid staying home from school. 🤷🏼♀️
You’re so right, garlic, lemon, even honey have helped me recover from some pretty gnarley flu’s. Being sick sucks but taking care of ourselves never does. Great post @jasmink 👏👏👏.
You're husband is a very lucky person, thanks to you, I hope he knows it! 😉
This was so well said, I couldn't agree more! This made me think about how we should always take care of ourselves, and I'm not talking only about flus and colds. Often people wake up to the fact they haven't taken care of their bodies and minds too late. Nowadays the focus is in the wrong place, instead of putting all the time, effort and money into curing diseases (of course this should be done too), prevention should be the main focus!
Thank you, @puravidaville! :)
He calls himself “the luckiest guy I know”. Haha… thank you @jasmink.
In today’s world ‘taking care of yoirself’ Is different for many people. We have created a culture of normalizing constant pollution of our bodies. Most ‘food’ in grocery stores contain all sorts or hidden chemicals that wreak havoc on our poor bodies, every little store on the corner sells us alcohol that tears our gut up, even the coffee shops pushing their rendition of a pumpkin spice latte has a huge impact on our neurological and digestive system. These things go un scrutinized because it’s all become so normal. You have a stomach ache, take a tums, you have a sore throat, take a DayQuil - we are ruining our bodies but because we ‘go to the gym 5 days a week and eat an all protein diet’ we think we are the epitome of health.
Hahaha
Sorry about the tangent- it’s just so important for all of us to get back to what “healthy” is in every form, mind, body and soul. I’ll get off you page now :)
No need to say your sorry, it's only interesting to hear your opinions! It's so weird to see how abnormal things become normal in our society only because they're more common. For example nowadays it seems to be normal to take medication to lower cholesterol, even if it tells your body isn't in optimal condition. People are often more interested in treating the symptoms than the actual cause of them. At least I would like to discuss about the things causing my symptoms and try to make my body heal instead of only take some medications to get rid of the symptoms!
I was supposed to quickly answer to your comment, but it seems like this a bit emotive subject for me too, haha.
Haha… we all should be more emotive about our health. Love the energy you put out @jasmink- always nice chatting with you :)
Likewise! :)