I have been crazy sick with the flu over the last week, with very little appetite to speak of. Luckily the first day I felt sick I happened to have a leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge, and I was able to whip up a batch of chicken stock in the slow cooker.
My go-to sick food is chicken broth seasoned with turmeric, garlic, ginger, and cumin - all of which are said to help cure sickness and reduce inflammation. I don't know about that, but it's quite tasty, and it makes me feel like I'm doing something useful when there is often very little you can do but ride out the viral assault.
Broth is an excellent choice for sick people. Even aside from the potential curative properties of chicken soup, broth has proteins which are easy to digest. And it's a nice hot fluid, which helps rehydrate you, warm you up from the inside, and loosen up any chest congestion.
Many Japanese people swear by a variant on this theme: miso soup with sliced fresh green onions and a handful of bean sprouts. Miso soup, being a fermented food, has lots of interesting properties, and is a good source of probiotics. And again, you've got that "hot soup factor." Add a dash of hot sauce to help clear out the sinuses!
Then you have the mechanical cures, like popsicles for a sore throat. Ginger ale can help settle an "iffy" stomach. My grandmother was convinced that ginger ale and Saltines were basically the perfect food for sick people.
Aside from actual healing properties, many people fall back on comfort food to help make them feel better when they are sick. Grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup is probably the one I hear people mention most often, although cinnamon toast and macaroni and cheese are close contenders.
Image courtesy Flickr/ontheflyrecipes
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