Diet taboos for acute bronchitis

Foods that are high in sugar and salt, spicy and irritating, oily and phlegm-producing, and can induce allergies in your own airways. Don’t believe in the old concept of “you need to take a lot of supplements when you are sick”. If you eat the wrong food, it will only prolong the course of the disease, or even cause a chronic cough that will not heal.

I have been in the respiratory department for almost 6 years, and I have seen too many patients who were supposed to be cured in a week, but ate the wrong things and delayed the course of the disease to one or two months. A while ago, a sophomore girl came for a follow-up visit. She had been coughing for 12 days. She took the medicine on time and did not catch a cold. The phlegm in her lungs was very heavy. When I asked her, I found out that she felt that she needed to "replenish energy" when she was sick. She drank a cup of full-sugar pearl milk tea every day, and shared a braised duck head with her roommate in the evening. The high-sugar and salty stuff got into the airway, and the already edematous mucous membrane became even more swollen. The phlegm was blocked in it and could not be discharged. It was strange that she was cured.

Don’t think I’m being alarmist. I’m really not telling you not to eat anything. Many taboos are actually personal, and there is no absolute “can you eat”. For example, the most controversial question is "Can I eat seafood?" If you have never been allergic to eating shrimp or crab before, and you don't get a scratchy throat and cough when you eat it, it is perfectly fine to eat less than two bites of steamed food during the attack. There is no need to not touch it at all. ； But if you are allergic, or if the bronchitis itself is caused by contact with allergens, then avoid touching foods with high histamine levels such as seafood, otherwise it will only "explode" the airway that is already sensitive like a small firecracker, and the cough will make you unable to sleep all night long.

Oh, by the way, there are still many people who are deceived by the saying "eat more fruits to replenish vitamin C". They eat iced watermelons and frozen grapes, or choose high-sugar foods such as lychees and durians to eat. This is not a supplement, but a problem for the trachea. As soon as the ice comes into contact with the throat, it directly stimulates spasm. You can cough twice even if you are not sick, let alone the already inflamed airway. ； Eating too much high-sugar fruits will make the phlegm thicker, making it difficult to cough up and swallow it, not to mention making it uncomfortable. If you really want to eat fruit, just take a few bites of a room-temperature apple or pear. There is no need to steam them until they are soft. On the contrary, all the sugar will be boiled out, which is not good.

There was an old man who was about to recover. His grandson Xiaoshun bought him a small animal cream cake. He ate half of it and coughed so much that he couldn't sleep that night. When he came, he said, "I thought it would be fine if I just took one bite." You see, things that are high in oil and sugar are so "immediate." Some people also ask if you can drink chicken soup to replenish your body? You can skim off all the thick layer of oil on top, add less salt, and drink half a bowl of it warm. It's totally fine. If it's milky-white and full of oil stars, drinking it will be the same as eating fatty meat, and it will definitely produce phlegm.

Oh, by the way, there is also a very popular "honey water for cough". It really depends on the situation: children under 1 year old must not touch it because there is a risk of botulism infection. This is a hard rule. For adults, if you have a dry cough without phlegm, drinking two sips of diluted light honey water can indeed relieve throat discomfort. However, if there is already a lot of yellow phlegm, honey with such high sugar content will only increase the amount of phlegm after drinking it, which is not helpful.

In fact, there is no need to think too complicated about the diet at this stage. You can treat the inflamed trachea as a freshly scratched small wound. You can sprinkle chili pepper, apply syrup, and pour ice water on the wound. Will it heal quickly? Just eat something warm and light-flavored, something that makes you feel comfortable. It's better than any tonic. If you are really not sure whether something is edible, just take a few bites and observe it for half an hour. If you don’t feel your throat is itchy, there is more phlegm, or your cough is getting worse, then it will be fine. If you feel uncomfortable, just don’t touch it next time. There are so many black and white rules.