What to eat when you have a cold and cough?

Written by Hu Bai Yu
Pulmonology
Updated on January 13, 2025
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If you have a cold and cough, it is advisable to eat a light diet and consider taking some cough suppressant medicine to relieve the symptoms. Additionally, one can eat fresh fruits and vegetables like pears, loquats, grapefruits, and watermelons, which help clear heat and detoxify the body, reducing internal heat. Both pears and loquats additionally help moisten the lungs and relieve coughs and dissolve phlegm. It is also recommended to drink some honey water, which can moisten the lungs and relieve dryness. It is important to avoid spicy, greasy, raw, and irritating foods. You can also drink some porridge, eat soft noodles or small green vegetables, soy milk, and tofu. Thus, it is recommended to pay attention to diet for managing and effectively treating cold and cough symptoms.

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Written by Zhang Shu Kun
Traditional Chinese Medicine
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Is soaking feet and sweating good for a cold?

Soaking your feet and sweating is beneficial for a cold because there are many acupoints on the soles of the feet. Hot water can stimulate these acupoints after soaking your feet, promote blood circulation, and accelerate the speed of blood circulation in the body, which can cause the whole body to heat up and sweat. Therefore, foot soaking can have a very good therapeutic effect on colds, and sweating can remove toxins from the body, which can be expelled through the sweat on the skin surface, effectively speeding up the recovery from a cold. Therefore, it is advisable to persist in soaking your feet every night. It is also recommended to pay more attention to your diet in daily life, avoid eating spicy and stimulating food, and abstain from smoking and alcohol, which will help in recovery.

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Written by Li Jian Wu
Pulmonology
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Can you eat onions when you have a cold?

During a cold, it is appropriate to eat some onions. If the onions are cooked, they are easier to digest. If consuming raw onions, eat them in moderation without overdoing it. Because they are spicy food, they have certain stimulating effects. Since onions are spicy, they can irritate the respiratory tract, leading to increased secretion of mucus, which in turn causes more nasal discharge and phlegm production. The expulsion of these secretions can help clear the respiratory pathways. Additionally, onions are rich in vitamins and can enhance the body's immunity.

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Written by Zhang Shu Kun
Traditional Chinese Medicine
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Is vomiting a symptom of a cold caused by wind-cold or wind-heat?

In cases of vomiting, whether it is due to a cold caused by wind-cold or wind-heat, both can lead to the occurrence of vomiting. Therefore, vomiting alone cannot be used to determine the specific type of cold causing it. It still requires the identification through other symptoms. For example, a wind-cold is mainly caused by exposure to cold, while wind-heat is due to excessive heat turning into fire. There are also differences in the treatment of the two, and they cannot be treated in the same way. For a wind-cold, treatment mainly involves warm-natured medicines, while for wind-heat, cool-natured medicines are primarily used.

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Written by Li Jian Wu
Pulmonology
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How to reduce fever when having a cold?

For treating fever from a cold, clinical practices include several physical cooling methods to alleviate fever symptoms. The simplest method involves using a cool towel or ice pack to compress the forehead. Other methods include wiping the palms, soles of the feet, chest, inner thighs, and inner arms with warm water or alcohol. Soaking feet in Sichuan peppercorn water or drinking more ginger sugar water can also help in physically reducing fever. Additionally, using fever-reducing patches and increasing water intake can promote metabolism.

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Written by Zhang Shu Kun
Traditional Chinese Medicine
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Is it good to run and sweat when you have a cold caused by wind-cold?

Patients with a cold caused by exposure to cold and wind are advised to rest as much as possible and avoid running and sweating, as this could lead to catching a chill and potentially worsening the cold. If you are indoors, running and sweating can be okay, but make sure not to expose yourself to drafts afterwards. It's best to sit down and rest to ease the sweating before resuming activities. If the condition is severe, medication can be taken for effective improvement. Also, avoid consuming stimulating, greasy, or cold foods in your diet; instead, drink plenty of water and urinate frequently to help effectively improve your condition.