There's "comfort food," things you eat when you are feeling a little down and in need of comforting. But what about when you are actually physically ill? Yesterday I had a dental visit in the morning that left me with a sore face and a Xanax hangover in the afternoon. I had little appetite, but I had to eat something. Ideally, something that didn't require a lot of chewing. And while I was willing to flex my diet a little bit, I couldn't quite justify the purchase of, say, a tub of rice pudding. No matter how badly I wanted it.
I settled for a small deli size bag of Lay's original potato chips. Just crispy enough to be satisfying, but not requiring any actual chewing. And so salty and perfectly savory that they really hit the spot.
When you get sick, you have to take in calories. But it can be a real challenge if you lose your appetite. Doctors have long recommended the "BRAT" diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It's bland, unchallenging, easy to digest, simple to prepare, and doesn't have any strong smells that can turn off a sick person.
Along the same lines as the BRAT diet, another sick-time favorite is Saltines and ginger ale. Ginger ale does wonders to settle an upset stomach. And once again, it gives you both fluids and salt, which are what your body needs when it's in crisis mode.
Chicken soup is the canonical "food for sick people," of course. Personally I prefer to drink it out of a mug. I can't deal with eating that much broth with a spoon when I'm sick. Whether or not chicken soup has magical curing powers, at the very least it delivers a good dose of the fluids, salt, and proteins that can help keep you going when you're under the weather.
What's your favorite sick day food?
Image courtesy Flickr/Robert Couse-Baker
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