Everyone knows that feeling when a cold or worse is coming on. The fatigue, combination stuffy sinuses and drippy nose, andthe constant urge to curl up under a blanket rather than getting your normal daily tasks finished are all hallmarks of a fast approaching illness. During this ‘bad feeling about this’ time and in the days afterward when you’re holed up with a box of tissues, we’re all tempted to look for quick remedies that will make the experience easier and get us back on our feet faster. This is exactly when things your mother and grandmother used to say pop into your head and you think “Hey, why not?”
One of these common phrases is “Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever”. You may have heard this backward as well because it’s surprisingly hard for people to remember correctly. Especially when you have no idea why this advice exists. Today, we’re going to clear up this literally centuries-old misunderstanding about how illness works and what you’re supposed to do about it when all you feel like doing is sleeping or shuffling around your house wrapped in a blanket and feeling vaguely miserable.
It All Started Back in the 1500s
As it turns out, the reason we still hear this old adage repeated and occasionally see someone actually try to follow the ancient advice is because of primitive medical knowledge and technology nearly half a millennium ago. Back then, they knew some about how metabolism worked, in that food made you both warmer and more energetic, and they drew conclusions from this basic understanding of the relationship between food and heat.
Why “Feed a Cold”?
The first half of our adage relates to why a cold is called a “cold”, which is because people thought it had to do with a lowered body temperature and being exposed to cold. Therefore, feeding a cold to theoretically raise your body temperature seemed like a good idea.
Why “Starve a Fever”?
The second half of the adage relates to an assumption that was clearly recorded in a dictionary published in 1574. The dictionary suggests that “fasting is a great remedy of fever” because, assumably, not eating will lower your body heat and therefore reduce the fever. And to be fair, people back then were very concerned with lowering fevers because they used to be a lot more fatal.
How Colds and Fevers Really Work
The problem with the adage is that, when followed strictly, people can actually hurt themselves by either forcing themselves to eat too much while down with a cold or not getting enough calories during a fever. Now we know that your body needs a certain number of calories to keep all systems running and to build up armies of white blood cells to fight the illness. We also know that there’s not a lot of difference between a cold and a fever and often one is caused by the other.
Eat When You’re Hungry
If you’re at home right now with your tissue box wondering if you should stuff or starve yourself, don’t. For the most part, being sick means that you don’t feel like eating but if you’re hungry through the illness, this is a clear signal that your body needs calories. If you want to eat for the entire day, be sure to consume in one or two bowls of hot chicken and rice or noodle soup to provide your body with the calories it needs to fight back the illness.
Drink Plenty of Liquids
But most of all, be sure to hydrate. Fighting illness takes water through sweat when you’re feeling feverish or clammy, through mucus that generates to carry germs out of your body when you cough or sneeze, and from clearing your digestive system. Drink water and sip warm broth or non-caffeinated herbal tea. This is also another reason soup is widely recommended.
Take Care of Yourself and Don’t worry About Old Phrases
So the next time you’re feeling under the weather or stuck at home with a head full of mucus, that old phrase may pop into your mind but don’t worry about it. Eat when you’re hungry, drink plenty of liquids, and apply good common sense instead of a mistaken advice thought up 500 years ago. Happy healing!