Chicken Soup for Flu
Winter is a high-risk season for cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and influenza. This is mainly because cold weather reduces the body’s resistance to viruses, allowing diseases to take advantage. How can we enhance our resistance through diet?
Dr. Bukowski of Harvard Medical School discovered a chemical substance in tea that can boost the body’s disease-prevention ability fivefold. Thus, drinking hot tea in winter strengthens immunity. For those with cardiovascular diseases, winter should involve low-salt, low-fat diets, eating more fish, vegetables, fruits, and moderate amounts of wine for preventive benefits. Those with coronary heart disease should avoid obesity, as it increases cardiac burden. Winter usually brings increased appetite—thus, advocating small, frequent meals, eating only 70%-80% full. Diets should be low in salt, fat, sugar, and calories, with balanced coarse and fine grains.
Pneumonia has the highest incidence in winter. Maintain adequate hydration to dilute phlegm and facilitate expectoration. Those with rheumatic diseases should avoid animal organs, oysters, sardines, and strictly abstain from alcohol in winter, while increasing water intake to promote metabolism.
Colds are common in winter. Dietary principles after a cold: choose easily digestible liquid foods like vegetable soup, thin porridge, milk, etc.; eat more foods rich in vitamin C, vitamin E, and red-colored foods like tomatoes, grapes, dates, oranges, etc.; drink plenty of plain water.
For different types of colds, adopt different dietary approaches: for wind-cold type, consume more foods that induce sweating and dispel cold, such as chili peppers, garlic, tofu, fresh ginger with brown sugar water, to expel cold. Recent U.S. research shows chicken soup helps fight flu by aiding virus elimination.
For wind-heat type, consume foods that promote heat dissipation and clear heat, such as mung beans, radishes, cabbage roots, mint, tea leaves, starfruit, etc. Eating raw pears or boiling pear juice with rice and consuming it hot also works well.
For dual exterior-interior type, drink more acidic juices like hawthorn juice, kiwi juice, red date juice, fresh orange juice, watermelon juice, etc., to stimulate gastric juice secretion.
For gastrointestinal type, drink chrysanthemum or Longjing tea, or substitute with mung beans and brown sugar. Also, eat more vegetables and fruits rich in calcium, zinc, and vitamins—like radishes, pears, kiwis, citrus fruits, and various mushrooms—to alleviate symptoms.