Food cravings when you're ill

[ttcycle]

Currently nursing a cold and I find that when I'm sick I crave absolute rubbish in terms of food!

I love those breaded turkey escalope things and spaghetti hoops with those processed sausages in them. Always the case when I'm ill with a cold.

Normally, a healthy diet with lots of nutritious, veg packed, home cooked food.

I also am more and more allergic to dairy but crave it like mad - had some plain chocolate yesterday without reading the label properly and it wiped me out with the breathing problems etc!!

Anyone else the same with illness related food craving/allergy cravings?

 

[Arch]

Yes, I probably want rubbish (comfort) food when I have a cold, I think it's just a need to be cosseted a bit. I do think we often have cravings for a reason - I don't mean an unrestrained diet of doughnuts, but sometimes I just really want something salty, or sweet, or a salad, and I think it's because I'm lacking something nutritional.

 

[MontyVeda]

when i have a cold i go on a diet of curry... the theory being I'll burn it out.. but i just like curry

 

[ttcycle]

mmmm food! Now that's a good sign, I always go off food if something is very, very wrong.

Curries...Indian and Bangladeshi curries - I'm just middling with; don't often feel like them unless someone suggests it. South East Asian curries - now that's a different matter!

I think there's some truth in your post Arch

 

[Melonfish]

i love cooked meats when i'm ill, roasted chicken, decent sausage, bacon joint, ribs. you name it i'll eat it as long as its hot.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

My body somehow gives me advance warning of an oncoming cold - I get a very strong craving for fruit, more fruit, any fruit. I'll find myself lurking at the fruit stall wondering why those oranges look so irresistibly orange and then it will dawn on me that I'm soon going to be sneezing and coughing.

Once I've got a cold, I tend to eat lots of highly spiced foods (those chillies burn through the most dulled of palates) with big helpings of carbohydrates. All washed down with pots and pots of tea - they replace the liquids leaking out of my nose.

 

[ttcycle]

The funny thing is that I find sometimes eating a load of spicy food sets off a cold for me - two evening meals in a row that were spicy.

Yes nose leaking...not nice at all

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Oops, silly me....ttcycle, I hope you get better quickly. It looks like rain tomorrow so you can do all your suffering then so you can enjoy the blue skies on Friday!

 

[ttcycle]

Thanks DM- excuse for watching shows about baked cupcakes on iplayer!

 

[Night Train]

I follow my food cravings. I figure that if my body is craving something then it must need it, or something that is in it, or should be in it.

Haven't worked out which ingredient of Haribo is so important to life though.

 

[Hover Fly]

My body somehow gives me advance warning of an oncoming cold - I get a very strong craving for fruit, more fruit, any fruit. I'll find myself lurking at the fruit stall wondering why those oranges look so irresistibly orange and then it will dawn on me that I'm soon going to be sneezing and coughing.

Me too, I wonder if it's a vitamin C thing?
But nowadays I notice the really advanced warning of a cold is the desire to drink astonishing amounts of sweet tea.

 

[Arch]

I follow my food cravings. I figure that if my body is craving something then it must need it, or something that is in it, or should be in it.

Haven't worked out which ingredient of Haribo is so important to life though.

When I have a cold, it's carbs I crave - even more than normal. I follow the rule of 'feed a cold, starve a fever'.

I hardly ever get fevers.

 

[Baggy]

I crave spicy or hot things with carbs too - chilli con carne with rice, Singapore noodles, Jalfrezi...
Sadly I don't think I've ever craved fruit in my life, just fatty, unhealthy stuff!

 

[ttcycle]

mmmmmmmmm cakes...!

 

[Newcyclist]

melted cheese, mainly a parmo ! food of gods weather your ill or not haha