Should you feed a fever or starve a cold?

From our video partners

Heartburn & GERD
Is it heartburn or GERD? Learn the difference.

Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold

The adage is "starve a fever, feed a cold."

It makes sense if you think about having the flu vs. a cold. A flu is an intense reaction that takes a lot of metabolic activity. Digestion is a demanding task. As a Fever is usually short lived (1-3 days), not eating may be a better way of allowing your body to contribute the maximum amount of metabolic activity to recovery. If the fever lasts longer, then maintaining adequate available energy may becomes a problem. Natural doctors recommend diluted vegetable (preferred) or fruit juice (unsweetened) for energy during an illness.

A cold lasts 7-14 days. As the infection primarily involves the mucous membranes of the head and neck, systemic challenges aren't as pronounced. As the system isn't as stressed as with a Flu, there's less need to reduce demands on the digestive system. It stands to reason that, even if you're eating with a cold, less demanding foods (hard to digest foods, lots of food, complex foods) will be more supportive of the body as a whole.

If your body is a furnace, food is the fuel. Simple foods are more like gasoline, complex foods more like green wood. You don't want to dampen the fire, and you do have to feed it. Our bodies have sufficient reserves to manage 3 days of light activity without adverse effects (assuming that we're otherwise healthy) A week of fasting in the winter (the normal time for colds and flus) isn't recommended anywhere that I know of.

Note: It may be worth remembering that the original phrase, back before it was misquoted, was - "Feed a cold, STAVE a fever" - as in "stave off" or "keep away".

Here is more information from WikiAnswers contributors:

• Eating doesn't really matter. Just drink lots of fluids.

• As I have always understood this adage it applies to temperature. Feed a fever means bundle up and sweat it out. Starve a cold means bundle up and warm up.

• It would seem that both are wrong. Most Doctors will tell you that it is important to reduce stresses on your body when sick. Both starving and overeating produce unwanted stress. So, unless you have a stomach disorder, eat moderately to maintain your strength in either case.

• (From Cecil Adam's "Straight Dope") Your version of the proverb is the traditional one, but you can find citations in the literature that have it the other way around. The idea, if not the exact wording, dates back to 1574, when a dictionary maker named Withals wrote, "Fasting is a great remedie of feuer."

• You're thinking: this guy wrote a dictionarie? His medical advice wasn't so hot either. Doctors have been trying to stamp out the above piece of folklore for years. Current medical thinking is that you want to keep an even strain when you're sick with either a cold or a fever, and you certainly don't want to stress your system by stuffing or starving yourself.

• Nobody's sure where the notion of feeding colds and so on arose. (It surely didn't originate with Withals.) One somewhat dubious explanation has it that the proverb really means "If you feed a cold now, you'll have to starve a fever later." A more plausible interpretation is that the feed-a-cold idea arose out of a folk understanding of the disease process, namely that there were two kinds of illnesses, those caused by low temperatures (colds and chills) and those caused by high temperatures (fever). If you had a chill, you wanted to stoke the interior fires, so you pigged. If you had a fever, you didn't want things to overheat, so you slacked off on the fuel.

• Bottom line: tell your kid to chill. But I can relate. When I had sniffles as a kid the feed-a-cold thing was usually good for a few extra Twinkies. So you'll just have to forgive me if, in the delirium of a 99-degree temperature, I used to imagine it was feed a fever too.

• The way it was explained to me was that if you have a cold you usually didn't want to or couldn't eat and needed to, so you "fed" a cold, basically not binging, but simply remembering to eat. However, if you have a fever, you may crave a lot more food, and may need to back off and need more moderation, so you would need to "starve" a fever so as not to make yourself more sick--keep those hunger pangs in check. And that came from a very, very wise old wife, so it must be true!

• The point is when you have fever your body is working to fight something in your system. You should eat light since the body needs energy to digest and it is better to let the body focus on the "fight at hand" and just eat light until the fever breaks. With a cold, your immune system is involved for up to 10 days, and you need to keep those guys fueled (antibody production). So you eat things that encourage their production, such as vitamin C rich foods and fruit, and soups, and teas, because they add needed fluid, and because warm fluid help to break up the mucous associated with colds. ? (as a side note for those who love milk and cannot give it up during cold, heat it up a little; it seems to produce less mucous that way) Holistic Nutritionist

• Your body needs energy to fight whatever viral or bacterial infection it has to, so "starving" is not a good idea. Though your body initially uses energy to digest, the digestion process returns more energy than it uses. Gargling with very hot, salty water soothes a sore throat and disinfects the mouth and throat. Flushing your sinuses with warm, mildly salty water can have the same decongesting/ disinfecting/ soothing effects (provided they're not too clogged with mucous to let the water pass through). Keep your hands to yourself (this is how infections are most readily spread) and lay low. If you feel cold at night, get up and eat a piece of cheese or some nuts (the oil will slowly fuel your body and keep you warm while you sleep). Most importantly, stay hydrated (no caffeine!).

• The way I remember it is feed a cold but starve a flu. Flu causes nausea, and you need energy to get over a cold so eat soup, hot foods, and cold liquids.
  when you're under the weather you always need nutrients and fluids!

• I've always found that if you freeze a fever and heat a cold, as in hot or cold showers, it works out pretty well. If I'm sick with a cold I'll stand in a hot shower and take in the steam. It really clears the the nasal cavity.
  And as for fevers, well a lukewarm bath always helps me.

• Actually, a fever is a great way to help your body fight an infection. The reason you get a fever is because your body is trying to render the biological processes inside the infectious bacteria useless. The proteins inside the bacteria only function within certain temperature ranges: i.e. the normal human body temperature range of 97.5 degrees to 99.5 degrees. When the temperature rises beyond this the proteins lose their ability to function; they've been denatured. Without these proteins working properly, or at all, the bacteria is either dies or is severely weakened enough for your immune system to easily finish it off.
  So unless the fever lasts longer than a week, or isn't too high (higher than 103 degrees in adults can become dangerous), you shouldn't try to lower your body temperature. Your doctor will tell you if that's necessary. Otherwise just bundle up and insulate yourself so that your body can keep up the higher temperature without having to expend a lot of energy. Eat healthy foods and don't stress your body too much. Drinking or eating cold foods while you are running a fever stresses your body and, depending on the temperature difference, can even put your body into shock. (so if you're running a high fever don't go and chug a big glass of ice water).
  Also keep in mind that children typically run higher fevers than adults. So don't get worried it your child has a 101 degree fever for a mild cold when you yourself probably would run little to no fever for the same cold.
  
  
  

• Regardless of medical reasons the adage feed a cold-starve a fever was lexically designed to help remember the proposed eating pattern for each sickness...d in feed-cold and v in starve-fever.

• * I agree with the furnace analogy and if you want to test this, try this: After a meal, (2-3 hours) get a sugar filled cookie of your choice (probably most anything with simple sugar will work), locate yourself in a comfortable room and in a relaxed position, take your temperature with a digital thermometer, and also just feel (sense) what your body and temperature are like. Now eat a sugar filled cookie (your choice). You should begin to feel your temperature rise within the first few minutes; you might even break a slight sweat. Measure your temperature each minute for the next 10 minutes… I think you will find that your body quickly goes to work converting this cookie into energy and that process raises your temperature… if not measurable at least in some part you may sense. Now it just seems logical that at a time that we are trying to reduce our temperature taking cold showers and baths, and medications that reduce fever… stoking the body's furnace with simple sugars is not very smart. I go with starve a fever. Of course I do not mean to not eat at all, but understanding the concept you might better choose what you eat to minimize the effect.

• "Feed a cold, starve a fever" is right on if you are an active fighter, but dead wrong if you are a passive waiter. With a cold, if you are a fighter, eat all of those favorite foods that make your mouth water when you think of them. You need lots of fuel for the fight. Also rinse your ears with Hydrogen Peroxide or Silver Water. That gets you to the final battle, the fever, in a day, instead of two weeks. The bugs can't handle the fever temperature. So, stop eating suddenly, forcing the body to switch to using stored fat. That is very potent fuel! When the fever comes up, supplement it with a hot toddy (heated lemon juice, honey, medicinal brandy or rum), get into a hot bath and increase the temperature close to heat stroke. Get into bed and sweat. By morning the nasty 14 day head cold will be gone.

• It must be pointed out that contributors to this answer are probably NOT doctors. Taking the advice given above may harm your health. If you are thinking of trying any of the less orthodox ideas above, you should probably seek the advice of your doctor first.

• When you have a fever your body uses certain strategies like altering your metabolism and binding iron to slow the pathogens down. That said, although I wrote this after the disclaimer I'm not a doctor either :)

• Admittedly, I'm not a doctor either, but I am a working nurse and some of these suggestions alarmed me. For minor illnesses you should maintain moderate intake, gorging or starving your self for several days will only put added stress on the body. The most common treatment for fevers is to take in plenty of fluids, eat when you're hungry, and try to keep as comfortable as possible. If it's a high grade fever you can take whichever NSAID (tylenol, motrin, alleve etc.) you prefer to bring the fever down since high grade fevers, can be damaging to your own tissues.

• For the record, high sugar intake could not possibly raise your temperature in 10 minutes for two reasons, 1) your body temperature does not flux based on what foods you eat, and 2) It takes about 30 minutes for your body to begin effectively absorbing anything taken by mouth, this includes meds and food.

And your immune system works at its own pace, you can assist it slightly by working with your body, but getting yourself "close to heat stroke" and putting hydrogen peroxide in your ears is cannot make your immune system work 10 times faster, the only thing it is likely to do is make you very uncomfortable and annoy any stray harmless bacteria in your ears.

• Feed a cold and starve a fever. This was from olden days of yore when we did not know much about medicine - when people contracted some bad fevers, they usually died with a few weeks. The general concensus at that time was to not waste good food on a person that was going to die. Of course this is no longer true today ... Our knowledge of medicine is far greater and keeps improving almost every week.

• It is feed a cold, starve a fever. However, this is a myth. If you look up the phrase on google, the next website says

• "This is definitely not a good idea in either case. You need more fluids than usual when you have the flu or a cold. Drink plenty of water and juice, eat enough food to satisfy your appetite, and drink hot fluids to ease your cough and sore throat"

• Neither, actually - It's "Feed a cold & STAVE a fever." - as in 'stave away' or 'stave off'.
  

• You should feed a cold to keep a fever away. If you have a fever you should feed that too, although you are unlikely to feel like eating.

This answer is closed to changes. This is done in rare cases when questions are being vandalized or answers have become debates. Email WikiAnswers @ Answers.com if you would like it to be reopened.

First answer by Chris. Last edit by ChocolateKitKat. Contributor trust: 7 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 233 [recommend question]