When you feel like you are starting to get sick, you are usually smart enough to realize that you should up your vitamin intake and boost the good foods that you eat. However, sometimes physically hurting can lead to wanting to emotionally comfort yourself with your favorite snacks, while you watch daytime TV and feel sorry for yourself. The problem with this is that if you eat poorly while you are ill, this will lead to your staying ill for longer. While fruits and vegetables are obviously a move in the good direction, what can actually damage your road to recovery?
Fatty foods
While good fats, such as those in walnuts and avocados can help you to get better, bad fats are a problem. These fats are saturated fats and they occur in animal products and also in greasy fast food. You will find them in cheap oils, such as cooking oil and canola oil. The problem is that your body has a hard time digesting them, which puts more work into doing this that repairing your body and fighting off illness. Equally, our immune system takes its fuel from the stomach and feeding bad food to it means that it won’t work effectively.
Spicy foods
Cayenne pepper and other spices can be really good for helping to clear the sinuses. However, too much of it when you are not well can wreak havoc with your stomach. Spice irritates the lining of the stomach, causing inflammation. On the first level, it is difficult to boost the immune system if its source of nutrients is irritated. Secondly, when the body is dealing with this inflammation, it is struggling to keep your illness at bay as it is fighting on two fronts.
Sugary foods
Sugar is generally a problem for the body. When you are sick, people often think that putting sugar in the body will give fuel to it. However, sugar su[pppresses the immune system, which means that your defense is now not fighting. Equally, it irritates the body, which does not help you to feel better.
Coffee
While people use coffee to perk them up, it is not a good idea when you are not feeling well. You may think that reaching for the coffee will get you through the day at work, but inevitably, it will only end up making you feel worse. Coffee is a diuretic, which means that it makes you want to pee. This flushes the body of the minerals that it needs while also making you dehydrated.
Citrus
Oranges contain vitamin C. Vitamin C is the thing that makes us better. Wrong choice. While all these things are true, citrus is extremely acidic. This acid enters the body and basically irritates everything it touches. If you have a sore throat, the citric acid will make it worse, while also irritating the stomach lining. You can get the same amount of vitamin value, in fact, more, by taking a supplement like Ultimate Man Once a Day. Alternatively, eating a slice of watermelon has more vitamin C than an orange anyway!
Alcohol
Hot toddies do seem to work for colds as the alcohol relaxes the muscles. However, it is also a diuretic like coffee and therefore leads you to become dehydrated. Plus the hangover won’t make you feel better.
Food is key to making sure our bodies perform well. As good as it is to eat the right things when you’re sick, eating the wrong things can cause damage if you are not careful. Be very cautious with your food choices!