What do you eat when you have the flu? Is it the standard chicken soup and soda crackers, which is always so comforting? Do you make sure you have lots of liquids that include hot lemon and honey tea? These always do wonders for me, but being Asian, sometimes I crave Asian flavors when sick.
What do we Asians eat when sick? Rice porridge, miso or some light soup with tofu and nori. I was told that rice, miso soup and nori provided a complete balanced meal because rice covers the starch, there is protein from the miso and nori covers all the minerals. So feel comforted if that’s all you can eat.
Today’s flu tips uses fresh ginger, as it is commonly used in many cultures to ward off germs.
Freshly grated Ginger tea.
- Black tea
- Sugar
- Ginger
Make a hot cup of your favorite black tea, something like English breakfast works great. Add the desired amount of sugar. Grate about 1 inch for fresh Ginger and squeeze the juiced from the pulp and add to the hot tea. Try to make the tea as hot as you can handle. This soothes your stomach and warms you from the inside.
Ginger Bath
Yes, you read that right, a ginger bath. I find that a hot bath before going to bed relaxes the muscles that tightened throughout the day. Right before going to bed, run a hot bath to ease all those aches and pains. This ginger bath was recommended to me by my girlfriend so I gave it try last night, but I omitted the salt because I didn’t have any!
- 1 cup ground ginger
- Gauze and rubber band
- 1 cup Epsom salt – bath salt
I used a food processor to chop the ginger. Place ginger, juice and all into gauze and tie with rubber band. Add to a hot bath and squeeze out the juice. It gives a very pleasant aroma and the ball makes a good scrub too.
So, last night I took a ginger bath and had a hot cup of ginger tea. I felt warm from the inside out and slept well. The only drawback is that if you aren’t feeling so well, you really don’t have the energy to do this. So, if you’re lucky enough to have someone run you a ginger bath, it’s highly recommended as it has no side effects!
Stay well everyone, being sick is no fun.
I drink ginger tea, not just when I’m sick but also to help digestion – and because I like it 🙂
I didn’t know about ginger baths though, I must try one.
Yes, it was my first Ginger bath and it’s quite soothing and yes, in Asia we say it’s good for digestion too!
Whoah! I didn’t know that ginger is for flu! This article is so helpful. I should try to make this recipe! Thanks a lot!