Ginger
Ginger has antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti inflammatory properties. Uses include Trusted Source reducing muscle pain and managing nausea. Make tea by simmering a few slices of raw ginger root in boiling water. As well as providing hydration, it may soothe muscle pain, ease a sore throat, and reduce nausea if present.
Benefits of ginger water
As with many herbal medicines, more research is necessary to better understand and prove the uses of ginger and ginger water. Many anecdotes about uses for ginger water can’t be guaranteed to be healthy or effective. However, limited research does back several potential benefits.
Ginger tea is fantastic in cold months, and delicious after dinner. You can add a little lemon or lime, and a small amount of honey and make a great beverage.
Commercial ginger tea bags are available at many grocery stores and contain dry ginger, sometimes in combination with other ingredients. These tea bags store well and are convenient to brew. Fresh ginger has strong health benefits comparable to those of dried, but tea made with dried ginger may have a milder flavor.
Honey
Honey is a sweet liquid made from the nectar of flowers, collected and produced by bees. The taste and color of honey depend on the type of flower from which it was collected.
Nutritionally, one tablespoon of honey (21 grams) contains 64 calories and 17 grams of sugar (including fructose, glucose, maltose, and sucrose). It contains almost no fiber, fat, or protein, and less than 1% of the daily recommended amount of vitamins and minerals.
Light colored honeys contain large amounts of bioactive plant compounds and antioxidants. These substances are also present in higher proportions in darker honeys.
Honey bees stockpile honey in the hive. Within the hive is a structure made from wax called honeycomb. The honeycomb is made up of hundreds or thousands of hexagonal cells, into which the bees regurgitate honey for storage. Other honey producing species of bee store the substance in different structures, such as the pots made of wax and resin used by the stingless bee.
Honey for human consumption is collected from wild bee colonies, or from the hives of domesticated bees. The honey produced by honey bees is the most familiar to humans, thanks to its worldwide commercial production and availability. The husbandry of bees is known as beekeeping or apiculture, with the cultivation of stingless bees usually referred to as meliponiculture.
Honey is sweet because of its high concentrations of the monosaccharides fructose and glucose. It has about the same relative sweetness as sucrose (table sugar). One standard tablespoon (14 mL) of honey provides around 180 kilojoules (43 kilocalories) of food energy. It has attractive chemical properties for baking and a distinctive flavor when used as a sweetener. Most microorganisms cannot grow in honey and sealed honey therefore does not spoil. Samples of honey discovered in archaeological contexts have proven edible even after millennia.
Honey has a variety of antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. Drinking honey in tea with lemon can ease sore throat pain. ResearchTrusted Source suggests it may also act as a cough suppressant.
You should never give honey to a child younger than 12 months, as it may contain botulinum spores Trusted Source. While they’re usually harmless to older children and adults, infants’ immune systems aren’t able to fight them off.
chicken soup
There is no scientific proof that chicken soup can cure a cold or flu or speed up recovery, but its ingredients contain nutrients that support your immune system. It’s also a comforting food that provides hydration and may help you feel better overall. There is also some evidence that the nutrients in chicken soup may slow the movement of neutrophils in your body.
Chicken soup has long been touted as a form of folk medicine to treat respiratory infections. In 2000, scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha studied the effect of chicken soup on the inflammatory response in vitro. They found that some components of the chicken soup inhibit neutrophil migration, which may have an anti inflammatory effect that could hypothetically lead to temporary ease from symptoms of illness. However, since these results have been obtained from purified cells (and directly applied), the diluted soup in vivo effect is debatable. The New York Times reviewed the University of Nebraska study, among others, in 2007 and concluded that “none of the research is conclusive, and it is not known whether the changes measured in the laboratory really have a meaningful effect on people with cold symptoms.
Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that helps protect your body from infection. When they’re moving slowly, they stay more concentrated in the areas of your body that most need them. This may contribute to healing. Try this recipe for chicken soup. You’ll need chicken, carrots, celery, and an onion. Alternatively, consider bone broth, which may also have health benefits.
Garlic
Garlic contains the compound allicin, which has antimicrobial Trusted Source and possibly antiviral Trusted Source properties. Adding garlic to your diet might reduce the severity of cold symptoms. According to some research Trusted Source, it might even help you avoid getting sick in the first place.
Garlic contains compounds with potent medicinal properties. Throughout ancient history, people widely used Trusted Source garlic for its health and medicinal properties.
Scientists now know that most of garlic’s health benefits are due to the formation of sulfur compounds when you chop, crush, or chew a garlic clove. Perhaps the most well known compound is allicin Trusted Source. However, allicin is an unstable compound that is only briefly present in fresh garlic after you cut or crush it. The sulfur compounds from garlic enter your body from the digestive tract. They then travel all over your body, exerting strong biological effects.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that plays many Trusted Source important roles in your body, including supporting the immune system.
Good dietary sources of vitamin C include: citrus fruits, red peppers, green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli
Adding fresh lemon juice to hot tea with honey may reduce phlegm when you’re sick. Drinking hot or cold lemonade may also help.
Vitamin C in the diet or as supplements is unlikely to prevent a cold, but some evidenceTrusted Source suggests it may improve symptoms and may slightly shortenTrusted Source the time a cold lasts.
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient involved in the repair of tissue, the formation of collagen, and the enzymatic production of certain neurotransmitters. It is required for the functioning of several enzymes and is important for immune system function. It also functions as an antioxidant. Vitamin C may be taken by mouth or by intramuscular, subcutaneous or intravenous injection. Various health claims exist on the basis that moderate vitamin C deficiency increases disease risk, such as for the common cold, cancer or COVID-19.
There are also claims of benefits from vitamin C supplementation in excess of the recommended dietary intake for people who are not considered vitamin C deficient. Vitamin C is generally well tolerated. Large doses may cause gastrointestinal discomfort, headache, trouble sleeping, and flushing of the skin. The United States National Academy of Medicine recommends against consuming large amounts.
Most animals are able to synthesize their own vitamin C. However, apes (including humans) and monkeys (but not all primates), most bats, most fish, some rodents, and certain other animals must acquire it from dietary sources because a gene for a synthesis enzyme has mutations that render it dysfunctional.