When you’re sick, your body burns more calories fighting infection while your appetite drops, so the goal is to choose foods that are easy to tolerate, keep you hydrated, and give your immune system the raw materials it needs. What works best depends on whether you’re dealing with a cold, a sore throat, a stomach bug, or a fever, but a few principles apply across the board.
Why Eating Matters More Than You Think
A fever alone increases your body’s energy expenditure by about 11% for every degree Celsius (roughly 1.8°F) your temperature rises. That extra calorie burn adds up fast, especially over several days. Skipping meals or restricting food too much can slow your recovery. CDC guidelines on gastroenteritis are clear: withholding food for more than 24 hours is inappropriate, and early feeding actually shortens illness duration and improves nutritional outcomes. Even if you can only manage small amounts, eating something is better than eating nothing.
Chicken Soup Is Not Just Comfort Food
Chicken soup has genuine biological benefits beyond warmth and nostalgia. Lab research published in the journal Chest found that chicken soup inhibits the migration of white blood cells called neutrophils, the immune cells responsible for much of the inflammation that causes congestion, sore throat, and that general “stuffed up” feeling. The effect was concentration-dependent, meaning more soup meant more benefit, and it came from the broth itself rather than any solid ingredients.
Beyond its mild anti-inflammatory properties, chicken soup delivers fluid, sodium, and protein in a form that’s easy on a sore throat and a weak stomach. The steam from a hot bowl also helps loosen nasal congestion. If you’re making it from scratch, adding vegetables like carrots, celery, and onions boosts the vitamin and mineral content.
Fluids Are Your Top Priority
Dehydration is the biggest nutritional risk during most illnesses, especially those involving fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. General fluid targets are about 15.5 cups per day for men and 11.5 cups for women (including fluids from food), but you’ll likely need more when sick because fever, sweating, and GI losses deplete fluids faster than normal.
Water is fine for mild illness, but if you’ve been vomiting or have diarrhea, you’re losing electrolytes too. A simple homemade electrolyte drink can help: combine 2 cups of cold water, 1 cup of coconut water, 1 cup of fruit juice, and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. This gives you sodium, potassium, and a small amount of sugar to help your intestines absorb the fluid more efficiently. Herbal tea, diluted juice, and clear broths all count toward your intake.
Best Foods for a Cold or Flu
When you’re congested and achy but your stomach is fine, you can eat more broadly than you might expect. Focus on nutrient-dense foods that support your immune system:
- Citrus fruits, bell peppers, and strawberries for vitamin C
- Lean meats, shellfish, and pumpkin seeds for zinc, which plays a role in immune function (the upper safe limit for adults is 40 mg per day)
- Oatmeal or whole-grain toast for easy-to-digest energy
- Yogurt for protein and beneficial bacteria
- Eggs for protein without requiring much chewing or preparation
If a cough is your main symptom, a spoonful of honey before bed can help. A study in JAMA Pediatrics found that a single dose of buckwheat honey given 30 minutes before bedtime significantly reduced cough frequency in children compared to no treatment, and performed just as well as a common over-the-counter cough suppressant. Honey works for adults too. Just avoid giving it to children under one year old.
Best Foods for a Stomach Bug
You may have heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been a go-to recommendation for decades, but the CDC now considers it unnecessarily restrictive. While those foods are gentle on the stomach, eating only BRAT foods provides suboptimal nutrition at exactly the time your body needs fuel to recover.
A better approach is to eat whatever you can tolerate from a normal, balanced diet. Complex carbohydrates like rice, potatoes, and bread are still good choices, but add lean meats, yogurt, fruits, and cooked vegetables as soon as you’re able. Start with small, frequent portions rather than full meals. If even a few bites stay down, that’s progress.
Ginger is one of the most effective natural remedies for nausea. It works by blocking serotonin receptors in the gut that trigger the vomiting reflex. You can get it through ginger tea, ginger chews, or flat ginger ale (let the carbonation go flat first, since bubbles can irritate a sensitive stomach). Clinical trials have tested ginger extract at doses of 1,000 to 2,000 mg per day, but even smaller amounts from food and tea can take the edge off.
Rebuilding Your Gut After Illness
After a stomach bug, the community of bacteria in your digestive tract takes a hit. Probiotic-rich foods can help restore it. Yogurt is the easiest option, but fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, miso, and kimchi also deliver beneficial bacteria. Research has specifically identified strains like Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Bifidobacterium lactis as effective at shortening diarrhea duration and supporting immune recovery in the gut lining.
You don’t need to buy specialty supplements. Regular yogurt with live active cultures, eaten daily for a week or two after your symptoms clear, gives your microbiome a meaningful boost. Pairing it with fiber-rich foods like bananas, oats, or cooked vegetables feeds the good bacteria and helps them reestablish themselves.
Foods You Don’t Need to Avoid
One of the most persistent myths about eating while sick is that dairy increases mucus production. It doesn’t. Multiple studies, dating back to the 1940s and continuing through more recent trials in children with asthma, have found no link between drinking milk and increased phlegm. What does happen is that milk and saliva mix to create a slightly thick coating in the mouth and throat, which can feel like mucus but isn’t. If milk, cheese, or yogurt sound appealing and your stomach can handle them, they’re a good source of protein and calories when you need both.
Spicy food is another category people often avoid. If you have a stomach bug, that caution makes sense since spice can irritate an inflamed GI tract. But if you have a head cold and your stomach is fine, spicy foods can actually help clear congestion temporarily. Follow your body’s signals.
What to Eat When Nothing Sounds Good
The hardest part of eating while sick is often the complete lack of appetite. When nothing appeals to you, prioritize liquids with calories: smoothies, broth-based soups, juice diluted with water, or warm milk with honey. These deliver hydration and energy simultaneously without requiring you to sit down to a meal.
Popsicles and frozen fruit bars work well for sore throats and can sneak in some fluid and sugar. Applesauce, mashed bananas, and even a few crackers with peanut butter are low-effort options that provide a mix of carbohydrates, potassium, and a little protein. The goal isn’t to eat perfectly. It’s to give your body enough fuel to keep fighting while you rest.