Influenza, or flu for short, is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by the influenza virus. It is highly contagious, has a high incidence rate, and can easily lead to outbreaks or pandemics. So, what should we eat during flu season?
A. Why are people more susceptible to catching a cold in winter?
Large temperature differences: In winter, the significant change in temperature between indoor and outdoor environments is a stressor for our homeothermic bodies. When suddenly exposed to cold stimulation, the immune system on the surface of the respiratory mucosa is put under great pressure. However, in cold conditions, the body is in a state of low metabolism, providing an opportunity for pathogens to invade.
Dryness: In dry environments, many pathogens that reside in the respiratory tract become active and multiply rapidly. Meanwhile, the cilia on the mucosal surface lose their ability to move effectively due to lack of moisture, reducing their ability to expel pathogens.
Seasonal nutritional imbalance: To maintain normal respiratory defense functions, the body needs good supplementation of copper, iron, selenium, sulfur-containing amino acids, vitamin C, and vitamin E. However, winter diets are often characterized by high calories and high fat content because people consume more energy-rich foods to fend off the cold. The metabolism of excess energy leads to deficiencies in water-soluble vitamins (including vitamin C), dietary fiber, and water.
B. Nutritional tips to help you resist infections
If you observe carefully, you'll find that the order in which colleagues and family members catch colds often correlates well with their physical fitness levels. So when you notice someone around you has unfortunately "caught it," it's time to do some internal and external nutritional work:
A cup of anti-flu tea: Equal parts Isatidis Radix, Indigo Naturalis, Wild Chrysanthemum, and Honeysuckle, steeped in boiling water and consumed as a hot tea. Its main function is to clear heat and detoxify, making it suitable for preventing influenza.
Supplement Vitamin A: Lack of Vitamin A in the body during winter and spring is one of the major reasons for susceptibility to respiratory infections. Foods rich in Vitamin A include carrots, amaranth, spinach, pumpkin, red-yellow fruits, animal liver, and milk. Red, orange-red, and brown-red foods such as red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and oranges are all rich in beta-carotene (Vitamin A precursor).
Eat more zinc-rich foods: Zinc plays a crucial role in regulating immune function and can prevent colds. Zinc is abundant in lean meat, whole grains, legumes, and seafood.
Adjust your lifestyle: In winter, people need to regulate themselves according to natural rhythms. Longer and better sleep is a natural response to shorter daylight hours and freezing weather. Therefore, it's advisable to have light dinners and avoid drinking tea and coffee before bed, which helps improve sleep quality and enhance resistance to illness.
C. Maintain a healthy diet even after getting the flu vaccine
Another flu season is upon us. After experiencing the SARS epidemic, more people choose proactive measures like getting the flu vaccine. Vaccines produced through complex biological engineering serve as antigens in the body, inducing the immune system to produce corresponding antibodies and immunological memory. When encountering the same pathogen in the future, the body can generate a rapid and effective immune response. Although the amount of antigen in vaccines is small, it still represents a mild infection process, causing slight fever and fatigue. Additionally, antibodies are globulins secreted by immune cells, and proper nutrition supports antibody secretion after vaccination.
Appropriately supplement protein: Protein is the raw material for antibody synthesis. If you adhere strictly to a vegetarian diet and rarely consume meat, eggs, dairy, and legumes, you may be deficient in protein, affecting the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Supplement B vitamins: This helps combat fatigue. Good choices include animal organs, whole grains, and dried beans.
Consume more iron-rich foods: Iron deficiency in the body can impair the production of T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes, resulting in reduced numbers and quality, weakened phagocyte function, and decreased immune function. Iron-rich foods like animal blood, milk, eggs, spinach, and meat can correct these adverse changes in the body's disease-fighting ability, achieving the goal of resisting the flu virus.
Maintain a light diet: Avoid fatty foods hidden in pastries and fatty meats, as they cause prolonged blood accumulation in the gastrointestinal tract and increase the burden on the circulatory system and liver.
Drink plenty of water: Treat yourself as if you really have a cold. Drinking more water helps eliminate pathogens and harmful substances, moisturizes the respiratory mucosa, and prevents other infections from taking advantage of a weakened system.
D. Health protection manual for cold sufferers
Who hasn't had a cold? What's the big deal? Just tough it out and it will pass.
In fact, a simple cold can create many potential risks for serious diseases. It’s like a small battle between external pathogens and the human body. Pathogens may either be easily eliminated by the immune system or invade deeply, leading to pneumonia, myocarditis, nephritis, gastroenteritis, or even encephalitis. Therefore, it's important to take colds seriously. Besides active treatment and prevention, dietary and nutritional strategies should be tailored to different stages and symptoms of the disease.
Dietary strategies for different stages of the disease:
At the onset of a cold, the key is to relieve exterior symptoms and replenish fluids. During the early stages of winter colds, it's advisable to consume light and sweat-inducing foods. Ginger has warming and sweating effects; drinking ginger soup can prevent wind-cold type colds. You can also drink red sugar tea or jujube tea to induce sweating. Another option is to cook congee with green onion whites and rice, cover up, and induce sweating. Drink plenty of water to compensate for fluid loss caused by high fever and sweating. Staying hydrated keeps urine flowing smoothly, dilutes harmful substances in the urine, protects the kidneys, and alleviates cold symptoms.
When the cold becomes severe, with the immune system responding, antibodies start forming in large quantities and play a role in fighting the disease. The upper respiratory tract becomes a battlefield. At this stage, supplementing nutrients akin to providing supplies is beneficial for recovery. It's essential to consume foods rich in Vitamin C, zinc, iron, and sulfur-containing amino acids.
Chicken contains various essential amino acids for the human body, especially cysteine, which enhances immunity. Drinking chicken soup when you have a cold can accelerate recovery.
Garlic contains allicin, and onions contain plant bactericides, both with strong antibacterial and antiviral capabilities, effectively resisting bacterial and viral invasions.
Vitamin C enhances human resistance, accelerates wound healing, and prevents viruses from entering tissues. Green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, bell peppers, citrus fruits, dates, and grapes are all rich in Vitamin C.
After recovering from a cold, it's necessary to replenish strength. Your diet should primarily consist of semi-liquid foods, fresh vegetables, and fruits. Soups made from poultry or seafood are ideal because nothing comforts a person without appetite like a pot of rich soup. Vegetables softened in soup provide rich inorganic salts and vitamins to the recovering body. Almost any vegetable is suitable for cooking into soup, such as carrots, celery, radishes, mushrooms, and pumpkins. If cooked as stir-fried dishes, a cold sufferer might not even glance at them, but in soup form, they become more palatable. Greasy foods stay in the stomach longer and are hard to digest, so it's best to exercise restraint initially as appetite returns.
Nutritional tips for specific cold symptoms:
Catarrhal Symptoms:
Eyes appear red as if from a good cry, and clear nasal discharge seems uncontrollable. Smells, whether pleasant or foul, are irrelevant—this is typical of the initial catarrhal symptoms of a cold. Who has time to eat when struggling just to breathe?
At this point, patients only need to keep drinking fluids to replenish water-soluble vitamins, inorganic salts, water, and part of their energy. Forcing full nutrition isn’t necessary. Since only liquids are consumed, the choice of liquid matters. Various diluted fruit juices, carrot juice, tea, yogurt, sugared or salted rice gruel, and thin sweet lotus root powder are perfect options.
Coughing and Phlegm Production:
Congestion and breathing difficulties persist even after secondary bacterial infections set in. Nasal mucus becomes thick and seems endless. A sore throat, cough, and phlegm make swallowing food difficult. These symptoms indicate combined bacterial infections and a shift of the disease to the lower respiratory tract.
Rock sugar pear juice, though not a new trick, is effective in moistening the lungs, generating body fluids, stopping coughs, and removing phlegm. Additionally, tea made by boiling 3 grams of fresh leaves in a clay pot with 500 milliliters of water for 10 minutes, adding a little more, boiling briefly, straining, and then mixing with an appropriate amount of sugar before cooling, can clear the lungs, stop coughs, detoxify, and soothe the throat. It's suitable for coughs and itchy sore throats.
Gastrointestinal Cold:
Anyone who has experienced a gastrointestinal cold knows how severe it can be. It can cause violent vomiting, making eating impossible for a while, often accompanied by high fever—a formidable type among all colds. In severe cases, it's recommended to fast, even abstaining from water temporarily, allowing the gastrointestinal tract to rest fully. If necessary, see a doctor, get a prescription, and use intravenous infusions to supplement glucose saline, Vitamin C, and potassium.
Additionally, ginger and perilla tea (with 3 grams each of ginger and perilla leaves, cut finely, washed, and steeped in boiling water for 10 minutes) taken twice daily in the morning and afternoon is recommended for wind-cold colds, headaches, fevers, or nausea, vomiting, and abdominal distension associated with gastrointestinal colds.