5 Best Foods to Eat While Sick

When you’re sick, eat­ing and drink­ing may be the last things on your mind. But whether you’re deal­ing with a cold, the flu, RSV, COVID-19, strep throat or a stom­ach bug, get­ting enough flu­ids and nutri­ents can sup­port your body as it recovers.

Food can­not cure an infec­tion, but the right choic­es may help ease cer­tain symp­toms, main­tain your ener­gy and reduce your risk of dehy­dra­tion. Here are five foods and drinks that may be eas­i­er on your body when you’re feel­ing under the weather.

1. Feel­ing gen­er­al­ly unwell? Try broth-based soup.

There’s a rea­son soup is a go-to com­fort food when you’re sick. Broth-based soups pro­vide flu­id to help you stay hydrat­ed, along with calo­ries and nutri­ents your body needs as it recovers.

Chick­en noo­dle soup, pasti­na, arroz cal­do and oth­er warm soups can be good choic­es. Depend­ing on the ingre­di­ents, soup may pro­vide pro­tein, car­bo­hy­drates, veg­eta­bles and min­er­als. The warmth and steam can also feel sooth­ing when you’re expe­ri­enc­ing con­ges­tion or a sore throat.

Choose soups that are easy to tol­er­ate. If your stom­ach is unset­tled, avoid options that are espe­cial­ly rich, creamy, greasy or spicy.

2. Deal­ing with diar­rhea? Choose bland, easy-to-digest foods.

Diar­rhea can cause your body to lose flu­ids and elec­trolytes quick­ly. Even when you do not have much of an appetite, it is impor­tant to replace those loss­es and grad­u­al­ly rein­tro­duce food.

Start with small por­tions of mild foods such as:

• Toast or crackers
• Rice or rice porridge
• Bananas
• Apple­sauce
• Plain pas­ta
• Baked pota­toes
• Dry cere­al

As your appetite returns, add foods such as baked chick­en, eggs or oth­er lean pro­teins. There is no need to lim­it your­self to only bananas, rice, apple­sauce and toast for an extend­ed peri­od. Your body also needs pro­tein and oth­er nutri­ents to recover.

Take fre­quent sips of water, broth or a com­mer­cial­ly pre­pared oral rehy­dra­tion solu­tion. These solu­tions pro­vide a spe­cif­ic bal­ance of water, sug­ar and elec­trolytes and are gen­er­al­ly a bet­ter choice for sig­nif­i­cant flu­id loss than soda or sports drinks. Prop­er rehy­dra­tion can help replace flu­ids and elec­trolytes lost through diar­rhea.

Avoid alco­hol, caf­feine, greasy foods and any­thing else that makes your symp­toms worse. Some peo­ple may also need to tem­porar­i­ly lim­it dairy products.

3. Feel­ing nau­se­at­ed? Try gin­ger and small­er portions.

When you’re expe­ri­enc­ing nau­sea or vom­it­ing, a full meal may feel over­whelm­ing. Try eat­ing small amounts every few hours instead of sit­ting down to a large meal.

Bland foods such as toast, crack­ers, pret­zels, rice and bananas are often eas­i­er to tol­er­ate. Gin­ger may also help reduce some types of nau­sea. Options include:

• Gin­ger tea
• Fresh gin­ger steeped in hot water
• Gin­ger candies
• Gin­ger snaps
• Gin­ger ale made with real ginger

Take small, fre­quent sips of clear liq­uids rather than drink­ing a full glass at once. If you vom­it, allow your stom­ach to set­tle briefly and then try small sips again. Once you can keep liq­uids down, grad­u­al­ly rein­tro­duce sol­id foods and fol­low these steps for man­ag­ing nau­sea and vom­it­ing at home.

4. Bat­tling a sore throat? Reach for hon­ey or warm salt water.

Warm liq­uids and soft foods can help soothe a scratchy or painful throat. Tea, broth and warm water may feel more com­fort­able than very hot, acidic or heav­i­ly sea­soned drinks.

Hon­ey can coat the throat and may pro­vide tem­po­rary relief from cough­ing and irri­ta­tion. Try a spoon­ful on its own or stir it into warm water or tea.

Adults and chil­dren who can safe­ly gar­gle may also find relief from warm salt water. Mix approx­i­mate­ly ½ tea­spoon of salt into 8 ounces of warm water, gar­gle and spit it out. Do not swal­low the mix­ture. Oth­er at-home approach­es may also pro­vide tem­po­rary sore throat relief.

These approach­es may tem­porar­i­ly ease dis­com­fort, but they will not treat bac­te­r­i­al infec­tions such as strep throat.

Sched­ule an appoint­ment if your sore throat is severe, con­tin­ues to wors­en or is accom­pa­nied by dif­fi­cul­ty swal­low­ing, trou­ble breath­ing, a rash, dehy­dra­tion or a per­sis­tent fever.

5. Wor­ried about dehy­dra­tion? Pair flu­ids with water-rich foods.

Fever, sweat­ing, vom­it­ing and diar­rhea can all increase your risk of dehy­dra­tion. Do not wait until you feel extreme­ly thirsty to start replac­ing fluids.

Water is a good place to begin. Depend­ing on your symp­toms, you can also try:

• Oral rehy­dra­tion solutions
• Broth-based soups
• Ice pops
• Herbal tea
• Apple­sauce
• Water­mel­on
• Oranges
• Cucum­ber
• Smooth­ies that are not over­ly rich or sugary

Take small, fre­quent sips if drink­ing a full glass is dif­fi­cult. Signs of dehy­dra­tion may include a dry mouth, dark urine, uri­nat­ing less often, dizzi­ness, unusu­al tired­ness or cry­ing with­out tears in young children.

When should you see a health­care provider?

Many com­mon ill­ness­es improve with rest, flu­ids and sup­port­ive care. How­ev­er, you should con­tact a health­care provider if:

• You can­not keep flu­ids down
• You have signs of dehydration
• Vom­it­ing con­tin­ues for more than 24 hours
• Diar­rhea lasts more than three days or con­tin­ues to worsen
• You have bloody or black stool or blood in your vomit
• You expe­ri­ence severe abdom­i­nal pain, chest pain or dif­fi­cul­ty breathing
• You have con­fu­sion, unusu­al drowsi­ness or a severe headache with a stiff neck
• You have a high or per­sis­tent fever

Infants, old­er adults, preg­nant peo­ple and indi­vid­u­als with weak­ened immune sys­tems or chron­ic health con­di­tions may need med­ical atten­tion sooner.

Same-day care when ill­ness can­not wait

When you’re sick, you shouldn’t have to wait weeks to see a doc­tor. Duly offers same-day pri­ma­ry care sev­en days a week, includ­ing evening and week­end avail­abil­i­ty, with in-per­son and video vis­it options.

A pri­ma­ry care provider can eval­u­ate symp­toms such as a sore throat, cough, fever, nau­sea, vom­it­ing or diar­rhea and deter­mine whether you need test­ing, med­ica­tion or addi­tion­al treatment.

As a sub­ur­ban-based com­pre­hen­sive care orga­ni­za­tion, Duly con­nects pri­ma­ry care with near­by lab­o­ra­to­ry test­ing, imag­ing, Imme­di­ate Care and more than 50 spe­cial­ties across Chicagoland. When addi­tion­al care is need­ed, your providers can work togeth­er to help make the next step clear­er and more convenient.

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Fre­quent­ly asked questions

What should I eat when I have a cold or the flu?

Choose foods that are easy to eat and pro­vide flu­id, ener­gy and nutri­ents. Broth-based soup, oat­meal, toast, eggs, fruit, rice and oth­er famil­iar foods can be good choic­es. Your appetite may be low­er than usu­al, so focus on small por­tions and reg­u­lar fluids.

Should I fol­low the BRAT diet when I have diarrhea?

Bananas, rice, apple­sauce and toast can be gen­tle start­ing foods, but the BRAT diet is too lim­it­ed to meet your nutri­tion­al needs for an extend­ed peri­od. As tol­er­at­ed, add oth­er car­bo­hy­drates, lean pro­tein and famil­iar foods so your body receives a wider range of nutrients.

Are sports drinks good for dehydration?

Water may be enough for mild ill­ness. When vom­it­ing or diar­rhea caus­es more sig­nif­i­cant flu­id loss, a com­mer­cial­ly pre­pared oral rehy­dra­tion solu­tion is gen­er­al­ly pre­ferred because it con­tains a more appro­pri­ate bal­ance of water, sug­ar and elec­trolytes. Ask a health­care provider for guid­ance for infants, young chil­dren or peo­ple with kid­ney, heart or meta­bol­ic conditions.

Is gin­ger safe for nausea?

Gin­ger may help with cer­tain types of nau­sea, but it is not appro­pri­ate for every­one and can inter­act with some med­ica­tions. Talk with a health­care provider before using gin­ger sup­ple­ments, espe­cial­ly if you take blood-thin­ning med­ica­tion, have a bleed­ing dis­or­der or are preg­nant. Food and tea typ­i­cal­ly con­tain less con­cen­trat­ed amounts than supplements.

Where can I get same-day care in the Chica­go suburbs?

Duly offers same-day pri­ma­ry care appoint­ments every day of the week, includ­ing in-per­son and video vis­its. Duly Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ters also pro­vide walk-in care for ill­ness­es and injuries that need prompt atten­tion but are not life-threat­en­ing. Vis­it the Duly care find­er to select the option that best fits your symptoms.

Care at Duly Health and Care

Most com­mon sea­son­al ill­ness­es can be man­aged with rest, hydra­tion, nour­ish­ing foods and the right lev­el of med­ical sup­port. When you need help, Duly pro­vides acces­si­ble pri­ma­ry, Imme­di­ate and spe­cial­ty care close to home through­out the Chica­go suburbs.

With same-day pri­ma­ry care avail­able sev­en days a week and a con­nect­ed net­work of test­ing, imag­ing and spe­cial­ty ser­vices, you can get answers and take the next step with­out unnec­es­sary delays.

Sched­ule a same-day visit

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