Does the saying feed a cold and starve a fever true?

Question

I have a cold, and am starving, am I the only person who wants to eat more when they are ill??
But should I not worry to much, as the old wives tale says to feed a cold??

Sorry, says a lot about my mental health, I should have asked , Is the saying true

Answer 1

I'd think it's an old wives tale that has come from how people generally feel when they have a cold or fever...

If you have a cold, you're ill but not so ill you don't want to eat, your body needs extra strength to fight off the infection, so you eat more.

If you have a fever/flu, you don't feel like moving, let alone eating, so maybe that's where the saying comes from?

Feel better soon! x

Answer 2

Noooooooooooo the saying goes: Starve a cold and feed a fever. Fever usually indicate some sort of infection. There's an increase of WBC's; the soldiers to fight at the site of the infection. The reason why you have to feed the fever is to build up or boost the immune system and increase metabolic rate to meet the greater energy demand in a fever situation to fight the infection.


Also by bundling up, and sweating it out, the fever will break.
or when you are chilled or weak, you need to stoke your internal fires.


Reality Check: Starve a cold, feed a fever?

THE CLAIM

Starve a cold, feed a fever

THE FACTS

It's one of the most well-known medical bromides: starve a cold, feed a fever. Or is it feed a cold, starve a fever?

Either way, it may not matter. Scientists have found little evidence for either one.

How these claims came about is unclear. One popular but unproven theory is that fasting during a fever helps lower body temperature, while eating plenty of food helps raise it, thus helping to fight off a cold.

Perhaps the only study suggesting either claim had any validity was published in the journal Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology in 2002 by a team of Dutch scientists. They found that eating a meal increases a type of immune response that fights off the viruses responsible for colds, while fasting seemed to stimulate an immune response that could help fight off the infections associated with most fevers.

But other scientists have said those findings have little merit because the study involved a small number of subjects and has not been replicated. Most doctors, and years of research on cold and flu sufferers, say there is only one tried-and-true treatment: plenty of rest and fluids. It helps to know that once a person has contracted a cold or the flu, it will run its course in five to 10 days.

THE BOTTOM LINE

There is little scientific evidence behind the notion of starving a cold and feeding a fever, or vice versa. Although in the science of medicine, we usually give high caloric diet to pts with fever to boost up their immune system.

-- The New York Times

Do you know that Vit C and chicken soups really work for colds ? . I swear by it. By taking something warm and staying away fom cold drinks while you got the flu or colds will really help to dry up the sinus congestion.

When you are sick, your appetite is poor. The taste buds are flat. So everything tastes terrible or bland.

Answer 3

As far as ole wife's tales go feed a cold, prefferably home made chicken soup, and starve a fever, which most of the time is basicly true if the fever is high enough, you probably won't feel like food anyway.

Answer 4

it truly is... the belief in the back of it truly is which you feed your self with a chilly so which you get stronger to combat it off, yet starve a fever to circumvent fuelling it with the aid of raising your temperature. despite the fact that, individuals say it any opposite direction around, so starve a chilly and feed a fever, in all probability for the right comparable reasons as a results of fact the English way. individually I actually tend to feed and fever and feed a chilly. consume with the aid of it. exceptionally with cake.

Answer 5

The old proverb is true, because if you are suffering from a fever, food could easily cause you to be ill and throw up (sometimes called souring in the stomach in the Deep South).

Answer 6

Total tosh! You should always try and eat a healthy diet regardless of weather you have a cold or a fever.

Answer 7

yes it is true you do feel hungry with a cold but when you have fever you dont feel well enough to eat thats what i find

Answer 8

It must be because your body needs antibodies to protect itself,and some of them are found in food's nutrients.You are lucky because that way you won't feel weak and can fight better the cold.

Answer 9

you are to starve a fever so that your body can fight off the bad stuff, it is your white cells trying to get rid of the virus.

Answer 10

just an old wifes tale ,eat and enjoy