Boost Your Immunity: 6 Foods to Help Fight Off a Cold and Recipes That Include Them

When you’re ill and appetite is low, nourishing soups can nurture you back to health.

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Eating certain foods when you have a cold can relieve symptoms, enhance immunity, and speed up recovery, while other foods may aggravate the condition and delay recovery time. Cai Yifang, a nutritionist at Taiwan’s Keyi Nutrition Consulting Center, recently shared nutritional tips for colds on NTDTV’s “Health 1+1“ program.

Cai said that in the early stages of cold, special attention to proper hydration, vitamin intake, and choosing appropriate anti-inflammatory and antioxidant substances in our diet is needed. However, as many people have a poor appetite during a cold, she suggested that certain vegetables, protein-rich meats, and other ingredients prepared as a hot soup may help supplement nutritional needs.

6 Must-Eats to Counter Cold Symptoms

For proper food selection during a cold, Cai recommends the following six foods to help the body recover:

1. Green Onions

Green onions are rich in a variety of phytochemicals, such as sulfur-bearing compounds like allicin and alliin, and flavonoids such as quercetin and kaempferol, which have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. These help boost immune function and relieve cold symptoms.

2. Onions

Onions are rich in quercetin and organic sulfides, which significantly benefit immune regulation, reduce infection and inflammatory reactions, and relieve pain.

3. Garlic

Like onions and green onions, garlic is rich in flavonoids and organic sulfides. It is also rich in trace minerals, vitamin C, and a variety of phytochemicals that produce the garlic flavor, such as allicin and alliin, which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and immunity-enhancing effects. In addition, the polysaccharides in garlic can promote the growth of intestinal probiotics, thereby enhancing immune system functionalities.