Chickensoup. An apple. Hot Ica. When you’re sick, everyone from grandma to the n-组卷网

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Chicken soup. An apple. Hot Ica. When you’re sick, everyone from grandma to the next-door neighbor has a helpful suggestion for food that will put you on the road to recovery. What should we make of this wisdom — do some foods really help us feel better, or even actually get better? And if so, why do we hardly feel hungry during illness when we might think nutrition is needed most?

Yale University immunobiologist Ruslan Medzhitov believes our bodies are working not for making us feel better, but for being alive — and they might not always treat an illness as their greatest risk. Before take-away service was an option, getting food while sick meant putting a weakened body at risk. And finding food also meant losing more energy. Though life has changed, scientists assume these evolutionary holdovers (进化遗存) may still play a role.

That’s a challenge, because your body needs a healthy balanced diet when sick. It requires a specific range of nutrition — protein, fat, vitamins, and more — although Medzhitov says those preferences are a moving target. “The way it changes during illness depends on the type of illness, and that’s the part we don’t know well.” he says. Still by adding protein, fat, a fruit or vegetable, you can maintain a good balance of nutrition. That may be where the original idea of chicken soup came.

There’s no one definite answer as to what to eat during illness. Medzhitov believes that just listening to your body and its preferences is likely the best option. What you desire is more often than not what your body wants. When sick, your desire for one type of food and dislike for another don’t come by accident. Millions of years of evolutionary selection has taught your body to recognize them. “If your body needs vitamin C, you will have desire for something that contains it, even though sometimes we don’t know what that desire is for.”

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