Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold

By Mira Pawar.

The phrase “starve a fever, feed a cold” is a traditional adage that is believed to reflect old beliefs about treating illness. With the existing weather shift, from warm temperature to cold, and the cyclone making it worst, a lot of people are indisposed with fever and cold. To combat the illness, the patient has to

undergo a regimen of treatment and along with the dose of medicine, patients mostly get a guideline to follow. Furthermore, friends and family add in their bit of advice. Mostly in case of fever and cold, a common advice prescribed is ‘don’t eat too much’ (in case of fever) ‘keep eating at regular intervals’ (in case of cold). Does this make any sense? Let’s analyse and get to the essence of the topic.

Starve a fever suggests that when someone has a fever, they should avoid eating, as it is believed that eating would increase the body’s heat and worsen the fever. It typically indicates that the body is fighting an infection or illness and it needs energy. By eating too much, the energy in the body, will be diverted towards digesting the food and neglect fighting the infection. The body needs to focus on combating the infection, rather than on digestion and therefore starve a fever.  

Feed a cold, on the contrary suggests that when one has a cold, they should eat well to provide the body with strength and nutrients to fight off the illness. Colds are usually viral infections associated with symptoms like nasal congestion, cough, and fatigue. The idea behind “feeding” a cold is that nourishing the body can help support the immune system, providing the necessary energy to fight off the infection.

However, modern medical perspective indicates that both fever and cold should be managed with adequate hydration and nutrition, as the body requires energy and water to effectively recover from illness. Therefore, its strongly recommended to listen to one’s body—staying hydrated and consuming nutritious foods could be essential in both cases rather than being stringent towards the phrase.