What foods can you eat when you have a cold and a fever?

Written by Hu Bai Yu
Pulmonology
Updated on January 16, 2025
00:00
00:00

Generally, when experiencing a cold or fever, it is important to focus on eating light and easily digestible foods. This is because our gastrointestinal function tends to decline during the cold and fever stages. Consuming spicy, greasy, and indigestible foods at this time may add extra burden to the stomach and intestines, leading to indigestion. Additionally, there might be symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, or even diarrhea. Therefore, it is advisable to consume warm, well-cooked foods such as porridge, millet porridge, vegetable porridge, noodles, or dishes like wonton soup, vegetable soup, and dragon whisker noodles. Moreover, it is essential to drink plenty of water during a fever to promote metabolism and enhance the body's resistance. It is also appropriate to eat some fresh fruits and vegetables to replenish vitamins. Vitamin C can help boost metabolism and aid cellular repair, which is significantly helpful in recovering from colds and fevers. At the same time, it is recommended to maintain a positive mood, and if the body temperature exceeds 38.5℃, it is important to take antipyretic medicine promptly.

Other Voices

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Yuan Qing
Pulmonology
41sec home-news-image

Dietary Therapy Methods for Colds During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a particularly special period in the physiological process of women. During this period, due to pregnancy, women's immunity decreases. Additionally, due to the baby, the mother's nutrition is deprived, leading to malnutrition in pregnant women. Pregnant women during this period are very susceptible to colds or other infectious diseases. Due to the special circumstances, medications cannot be used, so treatments are limited to dietary remedies or traditional Chinese medicine. We can use remedies like brown sugar ginger tea or Fritillaria pear with rock sugar to treat symptoms of the common cold, which often have very good effects.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
1min 4sec home-news-image

Do common colds cause vomiting?

In clinical practice, the common cold can cause significantly different symptoms in patients due to various infecting pathogens. For instance, in addition to common symptoms like fever, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, itchy throat, and pain, patients with a typical viral cold may also experience various degrees of gastrointestinal discomfort such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Thus, when symptoms related to the gastrointestinal tract are present during a common cold, it is necessary to consider the possibility of a gastroenteric type of cold. Therefore, it is a common occurrence for vomiting to be induced by viral infections during a common cold. Prompt administration of rehydration, antiviral treatment, and symptomatic relief can effectively alleviate the vomiting symptoms caused by the common cold.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Liao Bin
Pulmonology
56sec home-news-image

Can you drink milk when you have a cold?

Whether you can drink milk when you have a cold depends on the specific condition. For those with a mild cold and no significant gastrointestinal symptoms, it is appropriate to drink warm milk. Since milk is rich in nutrients, containing high-quality protein, calories, amino acids, etc., it can be quite beneficial for the body's recovery. It also helps alleviate cold symptoms, especially easing symptoms like general body aches and fatigue. However, caution is needed for cold sufferers who have obvious gastrointestinal dysfunction, particularly those with gastro-intestinal type colds displaying nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. It is advised not to drink milk in such cases to avoid worsening the gastrointestinal dysfunction and potentially prolonging the recovery period. Additionally, it is important to avoid taking milk with other medications during a cold, as it might affect the efficacy of the medications.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
54sec home-news-image

Can you swim with a cold?

Colds, also known as upper respiratory infections, generally occur because the patient's immune function is weakened, leading to the condition. Many patients catch a cold due to exposure to cold, while others are infected by people with colds due to weakened immune function. For patients with a cold who do not have a fever, we generally recommend engaging in appropriate exercise, which can help alleviate the symptoms of a cold. For instance, if a cold occurs during the cold winter months, swimming and participating in similar physical activities can be beneficial for enhancing the patient's immune function and aiding in quicker recovery from the illness. Therefore, it is acceptable for patients with a cold to swim.

doctor image
home-news-image
Written by Hu Bai Yu
Pulmonology
1min 6sec home-news-image

How to treat a cold during pregnancy

If you have symptoms of a cold while pregnant, it is advised not to self-medicate blindly. Always consult a physician and use medications that are relatively safer to treat the condition so as to prevent any potential impact on the fetus. This is particularly important during the first three months of pregnancy when the baby's development is still not complete, and indiscriminate use of some medications could possibly cause developmental abnormalities in the baby. It is suggested that everyone should distinguish the type of cold they are experiencing, and then treat and alleviate symptoms through dietary therapy. For instance, for a cold caused by exposure to wind and chill, one might drink some brown sugar ginger tea or have a warm foot bath, both of which can expel the cold from the body, promote blood circulation, and relieve cold symptoms. If it's a cold caused by wind-heat, drinking herbal teas that clear heat and detoxify can be beneficial in alleviating the condition.