With fall around the corner, it is time to gear up your body to fight colds. When temperatures fall and the nights are cold, damp and long, warm liquids and pepped up hot dishes help soothe the throat and aid healing.
Eating the right foods is the first step for effective prevention. So what exactly would constitute the right preventive foods?
Foods containing niacin.
Foods rich in niacin are whole wheat products, sesame, coffee, peanuts, animal liver, fish and milk. Munching on sesame, peanut and bran crackers is one way to ensure your intake of niacin through the day.
Foods containing Vitamin C
Vitamin C aids in building up immunity. While food sources like amla, guava, lime, orange and cabbage are rich in Vitamin C, leeks, carrots and spinach help to keep warm. Gearing up to fight colds with juice of amla and orange makes great sense. However, when you want to warm up, soups and broths containing, leeks, cabbage and carrots are the best bet.
Water and fluids
Fluids help lubricate the mucus membranes. Even a glass of warm water can give relief. Chicken soup helps clear up nasal congestion while soups that contain herbs do their own bit to fight cold.
Foods with spices and seasoning
There are plenty of spices that will warm you up to the toes and clear up congestion. Thus ginger, peeper, paprika and garlic can be combined to give that hot flavour to cooking. It can also boost the healing power of chicken soup for a spicy de-congestion version!
Mustard sauce helps loosen nasal congestion when all else fails. Likewise a dash of pepper helps keep the body warm. While sesame can be liberally used on cakes, cookies and dips, sweet balls of sesame and jaggery are ideal foods to fight cold. Adding ginger helps to boosts body heat and soothe a sore throat. Garlic helps to heal with its antibiotic properties. Pepper too builds up body heat and soothes the throat.
Adding basil, bay leaves, ginger, garlic and cloves in cooking, helps boost immunity. Not only do these herbs have therapeutic and anti-inflammatory properties, they also provide some instant relief for conditions of cold, cough and fever.
Thyme is the ultimate cold-fighting herb. It reduces chest and nasal congestion. Lacing with peppermint helps to ease breathing difficulties, nasal and chest congestions, as well as inner chill and headaches.
Foods strong in probiotics
Foods like yoghurt, milk and dairy products, have the required friendly bacteria that help the gastrointestinal tract and ward off harmful bacteria. They also helps offset effects from excess antibiotics.
Foods rich in zinc
Zinc is necessary for the body's immunity system to function well. Eating shellfish, wheat germ bran cereal, pine nuts and cashew nuts, as well as most protein foods, gives you a good bank of zinc to help ward off cold and its symptoms.
Herbal teas and drinks
They help to hydrate respiratory tracts and make up for fluid losses. Ginger tea is the best drink for cold. It loosens and expels phlegm from the lungs, helps to prevent onset of bronchitis and breaks fever with increased perspiration. The best concoction is hot ginger tea punched with basil, bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, palm candy and pepper. Rosemary extracts drunk as tea and echinacea tea are wonderful for cutting down flu and cold conditions.
Wild cherry bark tea works very well for colds with productive coughs. A garlic tea would help clear mucusy lungs and sinuses. Soups containing leeks, potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes, are tasty, nourishing and soothing.
Spoonful of honey and fresh lime juice or tea laced with the same are excellent for soothing the throat and the irritable non-productive cough.. Together with the juice of grated ginger root, its action is enhanced. Developing the habit of drinking Vitamin C rich citrus or tomato juice all through the year, strengthens immunity from cold.
At the same time teas and syrups that are sourced from elderflower, elderberyy and chamomile help to reduce temperature, where the cold is accompanied by fever.
So if you are suffering from a runny nose, sore throat, sneezes or nasal congestion, then make sure to have the right foods to speed up healing, whether as an alternative treatment or to complement your medication.
http://www.healthvitaminsguide.com/vitamins/vitamin- b3.htm
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/pepper.html
http://www.locateadoc.com/articles/50-ways-to-fight- colds-and-flu-93.html