Now I am sure I haven’t been the only one who has asked as a young child to eat ice cream, but having received the answer “No, you’ve got a cold” but does eating ice cream actually make your cold worse? With the cold season here I thought it would not only be a topical article but one that I am sure several of us deserve compensation from our parents for!
A cold is a mild viral infection of the nose, throat, sinuses and upper airways. It’s very common and usually clears up on its own within a week or two. A flu on the other hand is an infection caused by different viruses, it has common symptoms of having a temperature, above 38C, feeling tired and achy, having a chesty cough. A common cold has similar symptoms however there is no temperature nor aches, more sore throat and blocked nose.
There are viruses and pathogens all around us however the problem starts when they start to go deep within our body. Flu tend to spread due to droplets, as someone speaks or sneezes the droplets from their mouth can travel great distances, if these make it inside you body they can cause an infection. However we have an amazing first line of defence, from the cilia and mucus in our trachea we can attack the pathogens straight on, however if our defence fails, and the secondary immune system response starts to kick in, our temperature rises and we start to experience symptoms, the war against the pathogens is officially on. There are generally no cures other than waiting for the pathogen to be defeated within you, but until our immune system claim victory it is said we rest ourselves the best we can and drink plenty of fluid, so what harm can ice cream do?
Well the claim against ice cream goes: “it’s cold, you have a cold, so you’re going to be more cold” or “dairy products increase production of phlegm”. The truth is there is no conclusive evidence for or against ice creams, however logically , in a flu there is a pathogen within you that your immune system is handling, this doesn’t really have much to do with what you eat. There have been no study trials, that I have come across, which investigate this however it can be said that people might say to avoid ice creams for two main reasons; the first being that when we have a cold we experience a sore throat which wouldn’t be better off if we have ice cream, the second reason being that when we ill, its best advice to eat healthy and clean and ice cream isn’t that, well not a whole tub of it anyway, with a high dairy and fat content, however tempting it may be, it’s best to just keep your body clean. There are some foods which would make your cold better though (hurray) vitamin C which can come in oranges, kale, peppers and even strawberries have high contents of vitamin C. Probiotic cultures of bacteria, sounds disgusting I know but they are found in live yoghurt and are said to live in the colon of our body, if they are taken everyday, they considerably reduce risk of flu.
So there you have it, whether you have been caught by this season’s flu or you are mess all year round, ice cream isn’t necessarily bad for you, but it’s not good either, if you seem to have no sore throat then go ahead! But if your sore throat seems to be getting the better of you, then maybe I’d just stick to a nice strawberry milkshake ( with just one spoon of ice cream, promise :)).
Have a good week, until next time, stay safe and flu-less.
Freya
medicine 