An interesting email exchange came up this morning with a patient who is sick with a cold/flu and is feeling worse. Long story short she had been drinking Gatorade and eating applesauce and is feeling much worse. I had replied to her email and it sounded as if I was giving her a hard time for eating those foods because of her bladder. And, while that is true--that was not what prompted me to say what I said.

To be clear--vitamins and sugar foods including natural sugars like fruit if not blanced properly with proteins, will feed the cold and flu virus. This will feed it and keep it going. 

So, when you are sick to help the infection go away, it is best to eat extra clean and not feed the virus or bacteria causing the infection.

The other interesting thing I was thinking of recently when my children were sick is all of the ways a family may not think of when trying to avoid getting another family member's cold or flu:

1-Are your toothbrushes placed side by side in the toothbrush holder?

2-When you put your toothbrush on the toothpaste tube, did the sick person put their thoothbrush on that tube last? Maybe get a separate tube for when that person is sick.

3-Did you run the dishes and glasses through the dishwasher or wash them by hand?

4-Is the healthy sibling laying on the couch right where their sikc sibling was home from school all day?

There are more, but, this is all that comes to my mind at the moment.

Dr.M