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— Flu — Diet for colds
What should you eat and drink?
A sick person should not only stay in bed and take medications, he should also eat right. What should you eat when you have colds and flu to get back on your feet as soon as possible? And how effective is such a diet?
According to naturopathic doctors who advocate the use of non-medicinal methods in treatment, nutrition during a cold can significantly affect a person’s recovery: if you eat the right food, the disease will go away sooner, if you eat the wrong food, the body’s condition may worsen even more.
How to replenish fluid loss during colds and flu?
Let's start with what you should drink to support a weakened body. Typically, harmful bacteria and viruses accumulate in the throat and nasal cavity. In a sick person, the mucous membranes are inflamed and dry, and therefore even this first protective barrier of the body no longer functions as it should. If you increase the humidity of the mucous membranes, they will again be able to trap bacteria and block their harmful effects.
The optimal solution is a drink made from filtered water and a few orange slices. It contains useful vitamin C, plus the general tone and mood of the sick person will definitely improve.
For a sore throat, it is better to drink slightly warmed water with honey and lemon juice. This drink is not only good for the immune system, but will also help get rid of some viral cells and soothe the throat mucosa. Honey for colds is a very effective remedy, especially if used correctly.
“No therapeutic dances with tambourines are needed before vaccination”
- Now many have rushed to get vaccinated against COVID -19 - in order to receive a QR code. After vaccination, protein nutrition is often recommended. Is this really necessary?
- No special nutrition is required either before or after vaccination. Most people tolerate the vaccine completely unnoticed. And no therapeutic dances with tambourines are needed. Eating delicious food is enough.
I ate a delicious breakfast and went to get vaccinated. Or he got vaccinated and had a delicious lunch. I strongly support this approach. Of course, it’s entirely possible to pamper yourself and “pat” yourself - after all, many adults are also afraid of vaccinations. But there are no special treatment recommendations.
Protein nutrition never hurts, it’s tasty and healthy. Especially during the period of illness and recovery after it. These are poultry, meat, fish, seafood and some plant proteins such as soy and legumes. The only thing is that not everyone tolerates plant proteins well, especially after Covid. As a gastroenterologist, I often encounter such a problem in people who have been ill as bloating. I would not recommend legumes to such patients. But any meat is welcome.
In addition, you can make rich broths. And if we are talking about the financial side of the issue, then for such broths you need not so much meat as bones. They need to be boiled for a long time, like jellied meat - several hours, so that the broth in the refrigerator is like jelly. You can cook soups in broth - shurpa, borscht, cabbage soup, noodles - it's all tasty, satisfying and helps restore strength. But sticking to an exclusively protein diet—now it’s fashionable—is also a bad option. You need to eat different foods. We need both meat and vegetables, we definitely need fats.
During cold season, it is very wrong to go on low-fat diets. If now someone needs to lose weight, then it is better to cut out sweets (sugar, jam, honey).
Photo: povar.ru
Sticking to an exclusively protein diet—now it’s fashionable—is also a bad option. You need to eat different foods. We need both meat and vegetables, we definitely need fats
Nutrition for health: what to eat when you have the flu
Now let's talk about nutrition during flu and colds. A weakened body at this time requires especially careful care, so it is worth temporarily giving up “heavy” dishes of meat and fish. The same applies to everything sweet and fried. Never eat fast food when you are sick! On the other hand, a wise body often itself signals its needs by loss of appetite. Therefore, if you don’t want to eat, don’t force yourself.
Light meals, however, are usually accepted by the body with a bang during a cold. Chicken soup is one of the most popular and, at the same time, truly the most effective dishes for a sick person. Numerous studies by scientists have proven its beneficial effect on a stuffy nose and swollen throat: it reduces the number of neutrophils - a form of white blood cells - which cause characteristic signs of inflammation in the nasopharynx.
Therefore, the more chicken soup a person with a cold eats, the healthier and more cheerful he will feel. Let’s make a reservation right away: you should eat little and often. You should not take our words literally and eat liters of soup at a time.
Don’t forget about another popular product that is a herbal immunostimulant – garlic. It contains a substance (allicin) that effectively fights bacteria, viruses and fungi that attack the body. If the taste of garlic is not to the liking of someone who has a cold, you can cut the cloves into small pieces so that they can be swallowed without chewing. In addition, place a plate of chopped garlic in the room where the sick person is located - this will disinfect the air and prevent pathogenic bacteria and viruses from re-entering the nasopharynx when breathing.
Even people who are not fans of spices are advised to remember about spices and spicy Indian herbs when they have a cold. Some of them (coriander, cinnamon, ginger) significantly alleviate the patient’s condition, as they stimulate sweating, and in addition, most spices have a constricting effect on blood vessels, relieving a stuffy nose and swollen throat.
“Vitamins are only enriched by urine and pharmacies” - a phrase that makes my eye twitch.”
— Alena, what advice can you give to people who want to feel good during this difficult covid period, given that now more than ever it is necessary to maintain their health, including proper nutrition?
— For the last few years, I have been compiling a list of recommendations for my patients ahead of the autumn-winter season. Since the fall of 2019, I have become convinced that they also work to prevent the new coronavirus infection.
Tips that help us feel better are actually quite simple: balanced nutrition, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, minimizing stress. But proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, unfortunately, are not enough these days. Scientists have calculated: in order to get the full range of essential microelements and vitamins, that is, an ideal diet calculated using computer programs, you need to consume at least 3 thousand kilocalories per day. What does it mean?
For example, with my physical activity level of an average city resident and consuming so many kilocalories, I won’t be able to walk through the door in six months. If I don't want to gain weight, I can eat about 1,800 calories a day. And another ordinary person will also not eat 3 thousand kilocalories a day. Although it’s probably possible to eat, it will be difficult for a city dweller to expend so much energy. After all, this requires quite serious physical activity every day, which not everyone is ready for, so you have to control the amount of food eaten.
- Then where can you get the substances missing in the diet?
- This will be news to everyone who is against vitamins. A phrase that just makes my eye twitch: “Vitamins are only enriched by urine and pharmacies.” Contrary to fashionable opinion, as a physician, I am convinced that the missing substances should be taken from pharmacies. Multivitamins are a very good option and are available over the counter. To prevent deficiency, it is enough for a healthy person to consume any complex vitamins.
Photo: covid19.fom.ru
Contrary to fashionable opinion, as a physician, I am convinced that the missing substances should be taken from pharmacies
Which foods are most likely to harm your recovery?
As already mentioned, sweets should be absent from the diet of a person suffering from flu and colds. The reason for this is the effect of sugar on leukocytes - blood cells that perform the functions of destroying pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Under the influence of eaten sweets, these cells become inert, stop fighting the disease and allow the healing process to take its course. The result of this will be the loss of precious time, during which harmful pathogens of flu and colds will strengthen and multiply.
As for the supposedly original Russian remedy for preventing the disease - 50 grams of vodka - it should be noted that any alcohol increases the excretion of fluid from the body. This situation only harms the sick person, because a dehydrated body takes longer to recover.
Your task during an illness is to provide the person who has a cold with water as best as possible, and alcohol in this case is not a help at all. The same goes for coffee and fruit juices. Drink berry or herbal fruit drinks without added sugar - they will fill the body with the necessary fluid and will not affect the activity of leukocytes.
“Our Russian habit of stocking up on buckwheat at the first danger is very healthy”
— Is it a good option if you combine vitamin D with multivitamins?
- This is a great option. By the way, Professor Olga Gromova writes a lot about vitamin D - anyone interested can read her monograph “Vitamin D - a paradigm shift.”
Multivitamins are easy to take, and you can choose any complex. If we are talking about the prevention of ARVI and Covid, then it is important that in addition to vitamins, the composition also includes zinc. By the way, our Russian habit of stocking up on buckwheat at the first danger is very healthy, because buckwheat contains a lot of zinc, which is useful for colds. That is, buckwheat is a very good and “honest”, and most importantly, an affordable source of zinc. Oysters, of course, are also not bad in this sense, but how many of our citizens can eat them in sufficient quantities? It turns out that the habit of stocking up on buckwheat is folk wisdom, confirmed by centuries of experience.
— What are your general recommendations during the period of increasing incidence?
— It is necessary to increase preventive doses of vitamin D. I recommend that an adult drink 2000 IU per day. This is the recommended dose that all healthy people can take. Doctors cannot prescribe a higher dosage without seeing a specific person and taking tests from him. The doses I recommend are often much higher, but my patients are always in touch with me and have appropriate tests done regularly. It is impossible to get an overdose of 2000 IU, because even for infants they recommend from 1000 to 1500 IU. Many experts believe that recommended doses for adults are long overdue for revision.
In addition to vitamin D, you need to pay serious attention to zinc. But in general, it is enough to take multivitamins at least a couple of times a week. Experience tells me that people always forget to take their vitamins, so it's a good idea to keep them visible on the kitchen counter, as I said.
The brand of multivitamins is not very important for most healthy people - these can be the most common and inexpensive drugs. You just need to not stop drinking them until the situation with the next wave has more or less settled down. This applies to vaccinated people too. Unfortunately, the number of unvaccinated people in our country is still quite large, so everyone must protect themselves.
Photo: ladyelena.ru
Buckwheat is a very good and “honest”, and most importantly, an affordable source of zinc
More unconventional recipes
When a cold is just making itself known, try using black elderberry extract as an assistant in the fight against it. This truly miraculous remedy can be purchased at a pharmacy and consumed during illness, adding to tea along with lemon and honey.
The effectiveness of black elderberry extract has been scientifically proven in Israel: a group of subjects with the flu who included this berry in their diet began to recover on the second day after the first serious symptoms! The second group, which used only traditional medicinal methods of treatment, felt the beginning of recovery only on the fifth day.
The rapid relief of the disease is explained by flavonoids, which are contained in significant quantities in black elderberry extract. Tea with this berry is a real magical drink, which is quite comparable to the drugs of the ancient Celts, who knew how to treat many diseases surprisingly quickly and effectively.
