In This ArticleView AllIn This ArticlePersonalize Your DietHydrationNutrition and CaloriesFoods to LimitPrep Tips
In This ArticleView All
View All
In This Article
Personalize Your Diet
Hydration
Nutrition and Calories
Foods to Limit
Prep Tips
Spoiler alert—there is no magic diet that will help. There is limited information about foods and drinks that may reduce flu and cold symptoms or duration, and the same goes forCOVID-19. With that said, if you’re dealing with long COVID symptoms, you may want to incorporate someanti-inflammatory foodsinto your diet.
Despite the lack of specific nutrition recommendations, here are some general guidelines to help you or a loved one who gets sick with COVID-19, including what to eat and drink, what to limit and how to prepare in advance.
What Should You Eat Before and After Getting the COVID Vaccine? Here’s What the Experts Say
Symptoms of COVID-19 can vary greatly from person to person. Some of the most common symptoms include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, muscle pain, fatigue, headaches, sore throat and GI symptoms, like diarrhea.When you’re feeling unwell, call your healthcare practitioner for medical advice.
Depending on your symptoms, severity, food preferences and availability of help, your diet will look different from someone else who also has COVID-19. Just like with the flu, you may not be feeling as hungry. You may also lose yoursense of taste and smellwith COVID-19, which can impact your appetite. Eating foods that bring comfort and nutrition while feeling ill is one coping strategy. It may beminestrone soup, pretzels and Lemon-Lime Gatorade. But this also depends on if you have someone who can cook for you—or if you’re fending for yourself and whether or not you feel up to cooking.
It’s important that you stay home if you’re not feeling well and call your healthcare practitioner for advice. See about getting any food or groceries delivered with no contact, via family and friends or a delivery service.
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
Blaine Moats, Adobe Stock / Tetiana
Pictured Recipe:Mango-Ginger Smoothie
Tea with honey is comforting, plus thehoney may also help calm a cough. If you’re having trouble eating, have a fever or are experiencing diarrhea or vomiting, grab a drink that contains electrolytes.Coconut water, maple water, sports drinks and Pedialyte all fit into that category. Juice is a tasty option and can also help you get some nutrients. Just be sure to grab a bottle that is100% juice, as opposed to juice beverages and juice cocktails, which have just a little bit of juice with added sugar.
If you’re not feeling well, it’s important to stay hydrated and rest as much as you can. If you find you can’t keep anything down—including water—it is imperative that you contact your healthcare practitioner andwatch out for signs of dehydrationas it can quickly become an emergent situation.
Focus on Nutrition & Calories
You may have heard the saying, “Starve a fever, feed a cold.” But there is no research to support that theory, and regardless of what type of infection you have, your body still needs calories for energy and to help fight the illness off. In fact, when you have a fever, your metabolism rises, which makes you burn more calories.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any foods or drinks that will relieve flu-like symptoms.But there are certain nutrients—including vitamins A, C, D and E and zinc—that help support your immune system.And protein is necessary to build every cell in the body, including the immune system.
Getting those nutrients can be as simple as making asmoothie with fruitand yogurt or nut butter.Chicken soupis another option that is comforting and may be beneficial when you have a respiratory infection. Plus, its broth adds hydration. Dealing with nausea?Gingerhas been shown to be an effective treatment for nausea and vomiting.Try it in teaor add it tocarrot soup.
In the end, just try to get enough calories in to support your body and eat foods that help you feel good.
These 7 Zinc-Rich Foods Can Help Boost Your Immunity
If you start feeling sick, it’s best to avoid drinking alcohol. Alcohol is dehydrating andmay inhibit your immune systemthat’s working hard to fight off the virus. Instead, keep yourself hydrated with drinks like water, tea, broth, juice or seltzer.
If you’re dealing with GI symptoms—diarrhea, nausea, vomiting—you may want to limit hard-to-digest foods likecruciferous vegetables, beans and whole grains. They take more energy to digest and may upset your stomach and GI tract. Swap them for foods that areeasy to digest, such as bananas, cooked carrots and peeled white potatoes.
Whole grain crackers and other crunchy, hard foods, spicy food and anything very acidic—like lemon or vinegar—may irritate your throat if you have a sore throat. Softer crackers, like saltines and oyster crackers, are a better choice for a sore throat if you’re craving some sort of carbs for your upset stomach—especially when eaten with a liquid since they quickly soften up.
Prepare in Advance
You may want to have foods and some over-the-counter medicine on hand to help you in case you start feeling sick. Soup andcasseroles freeze well, so if you do end up coming down with an illness, you’ll already have premade food options. Shelf-stable or freezer foods like crackers, bread and frozen fruit are also options to have available at your home.
Healthy Make-Ahead Meals You Can Store in Your Freezer
The Bottom Line
6 Things You Can Do at Home to Help Relieve COVID Symptoms, According to a Doctor
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SourcesEatingWell uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Symptoms of Covid-19.Balli S, Shumway K, Sharan S.Physiology, Fever. In:StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2023.National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.Colds, Flu, and Complementary Approaches.Calder P.Foods to deliver immune-supporting nutrients.Curr Opin Food Sci. 2021. doi:10.1016/j.cofs.2021.12.006
Sources
EatingWell uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Symptoms of Covid-19.Balli S, Shumway K, Sharan S.Physiology, Fever. In:StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2023.National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.Colds, Flu, and Complementary Approaches.Calder P.Foods to deliver immune-supporting nutrients.Curr Opin Food Sci. 2021. doi:10.1016/j.cofs.2021.12.006
EatingWell uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable and trustworthy.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Symptoms of Covid-19.Balli S, Shumway K, Sharan S.Physiology, Fever. In:StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2023.National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.Colds, Flu, and Complementary Approaches.Calder P.Foods to deliver immune-supporting nutrients.Curr Opin Food Sci. 2021. doi:10.1016/j.cofs.2021.12.006
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Symptoms of Covid-19.
Balli S, Shumway K, Sharan S.Physiology, Fever. In:StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2023.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.Colds, Flu, and Complementary Approaches.
Calder P.Foods to deliver immune-supporting nutrients.Curr Opin Food Sci. 2021. doi:10.1016/j.cofs.2021.12.006
