What is the best food to eat when you have a cold? Is drinking salt water useful after you have a cold?

In daily life, I hope everyone can pay attention to the prevention of colds. If you catch a cold accidentally, don't blindly take medicine. You can first adjust your diet. Generally, as long as the method is appropriate, it can have a good therapeutic effect on the cold. Let's take a look at what to eat and how to drink water when you have a cold.

Contents of this article

1. What is the best food to eat for a cold?

2. Is it useful to drink salt water after catching a cold?

3. What not to eat when you have a cold

What to eat for a cold

1. Multi-grain porridge: Wash 14g each of black beans and black rice, 34g each of millet, mung beans, red beans, coix seeds, brown rice, and Euryale seeds thoroughly with clean water. Soak for a long time, at least 4 hours. Add water, boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for 1.5 hours. After cooking, add appropriate amount of sugar and serve. It tastes better after being chilled.

2. Stir-fried Chinese cabbage with mushrooms: Wash 200 grams of mushrooms, remove the stems, blanch them in boiling water, remove and drain, then cut in half; remove 200 grams of Chinese cabbage, remove the outer stems, take out the core, wash and cut in half, put into a hot oil pan (add 20 grams of oil), add appropriate amount of refined salt and a little MSG, stir-fry until cooked, remove from the pan and arrange neatly on a plate; heat 30 grams of oil on a wok rack over high heat, add mushrooms and stir-fry for a while, add Shaoxing wine, remaining refined salt and remaining MSG and cook until well-flavored, drizzle with sesame oil, remove from the pan and cover the Chinese cabbage.

3. Stir-fried mushrooms with celery: Slice 250g of mushrooms and water chestnuts. Cut 250g of celery into sections and slice the chili peppers. Heat oil in a pan, sauté ginger and garlic, and stir-fry the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are soft, add the other ingredients and stir-fry until they are green. Season with salt and chicken stock.

4. Stir-fried celery with dried bean curd: Wash and cut celery into strips; soak dried bean curd in water the night before, take it out and rinse it with clean water the next day, then cut it into slices or strips; cut dried chili into small sections and ginger into thin strips. Pour oil into a wok, heat the oil and stir-fry the dried bean curd over low heat. After the dried bean curd is fried (fried), add the dried chili and ginger and stir-fry briefly. Then pour the celery into the wok, stir-fry quickly over high heat, add appropriate amount of salt to taste, and stir-fry until the celery is cooked.

5. Scrambled eggs with carrots: grate carrots and chop green onions. Add a little salt to the eggs and beat well. Add a little more oil to the pan, add carrot shreds and stir-fry gently. The oil in the pan will turn carrot color. Take out the carrots, half of the oil, and leave the other half in the pan. Add the egg liquid. When the eggs start to form, add carrot shreds immediately, stir-fry, and sprinkle with green onions. Pour the remaining half of the carrot oil in.

6. Mix shredded carrots: remove the roots and leaves of 500 grams of carrots, wash them, scrape off the rough skin on the surface, and cut them into thin strips; mix them with salt and marinate them, then wash the salted carrots with clean water, squeeze out the water, and put them in a bowl; chop 50 grams of coriander and sprinkle it on the shredded carrots, then pour 20 grams of chili oil, 5 grams of salt, 10 grams of vinegar, 10 grams of sugar and other seasonings into the bowl and mix well.

7. Celery with peanuts: When you want to make a salad with celery, you must choose fresh green celery. Its roots are very dirty and need to be washed several times. It is a pity to pick the leaves and throw them away. It is a good choice to use them for salad, omelette, and steamed peanuts. In fact, the leaves are more nutritious than the stems.

The amount of peanuts and carrots should not be more than that of celery; you can cut them into any shape you like. Soak the peanuts in clean water for a day, remove the red skin, and chop the ginger into thin strips. Put cold water in a pot, add a little salt after boiling, which will make the color of the dish attractive green. Then blanch them in boiling water, and cook the peanuts for a little longer. Put the blanched celery in a colander to drain the water before adding seasoning.

8. Carrot and yam stewed mutton: Cut 300g mutton belly into pieces and blanch, wash and cut 100g carrots, wash and cut 50g yam, and slice 10g ginger for later use. Put the mutton bone soup, ginger slices, carrots, yam, and mutton belly into a clean pot, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 45 minutes over low heat and season.

Is drinking salt water useful after catching a cold?

Drinking salt water will not cure a cold.

Salt water is salt plus boiled water. It does not contain any medicinal ingredients. Therefore, drinking salt water directly will not cure colds. However, salt water is warm and can help remove the cold in the body, warm the body, and assist in the treatment of colds. However, the effect is not great. Drinking salt water after a cold has a certain auxiliary therapeutic effect on the cold. And because salt water has a high osmotic pressure and has a certain bactericidal effect, drinking salt water when you have a cold can also help remove bacteria in the upper digestive tract and eliminate bad breath caused by the cold.

It is best to drink more boiled water after catching a cold, especially for a cold caused by wind and cold. The skin capillaries are numerous and the nose is blocked, and the cold air dissipates slowly. Drinking more boiled water can promote the dissipation of the cold air. For a cold caused by wind and heat, the body is hotter and prone to sweating. At this time, you can add appropriate amount of salt to the boiled water, but not too much, so as to avoid excessive concentration and edema.

What not to eat when you have a cold

Sweets

Whether it is high-sugar fruits or desserts, you should avoid eating them during a cold. Sweets not only increase the viscosity and amount of phlegm, but also cause bloating and suppress appetite. High-sugar fruits include mango, grapes, lychee, sugar cane, pineapple, red dates, etc.

High-salt foods

Experimental data show that reducing salt intake can increase the lysozyme content in saliva, protect the epithelial cells of the oral and throat mucosa, and allow them to secrete more immunoglobulins and interferons to fight against cold viruses. However, you cannot avoid eating salt when you have a cold, because the body will lose some sodium ions during the process of sweating. Salt in cooking is a supplement for sodium ions. During a cold, the daily salt intake can be controlled within 5 grams.

Crude fiber food

During a cold, people's gastric motility is weak, so during this period, you should try to avoid eating crude fiber foods such as celery, leeks, and Chinese cabbage, otherwise it will increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract.

Too spicy food

Spicy foods such as chili peppers can make the fragile gastrointestinal function more disordered and even cause the risk of nausea and vomiting.

Strong tea, strong coffee

Strong tea and strong coffee can cause gastrointestinal discomfort and may sometimes trigger gastroesophageal reflux.

Spicy seasoning

When you have a cold, your throat becomes inflamed and swallowing saliva hurts. It is best not to eat spicy food to avoid damaging the respiratory mucosa, making the phlegm thicker and harder to cough up, and worsening headaches and nasal congestion. It is best not to add spicy condiments such as chili, mustard, and pepper to the dishes you eat during a cold, so as not to aggravate the symptoms of discomfort.

Duck and Lamb

Because duck and mutton are often stir-fried with sesame oil over high heat and then added with wine, eating too much of it may aggravate the pain for patients with sore throats. Therefore, they should eat a light diet after a cold.

Grilled and fried food

Grilled food, fried food, stir-fried peanuts, etc. are considered hot foods in traditional Chinese medicine. After consumption, they irritate the respiratory mucosa and increase free radicals in the body, aggravating the symptoms of inflammation, and making the throat more painful and the voice hoarse.

coriander

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that people who often catch colds and have weak qi should eat less coriander, so as to avoid eating too much or for a long time, which will consume qi and damage the spirit, causing or aggravating qi deficiency, making colds more severe and frequent.