I am super sick right now and haven’t eaten much in a few days. It’s getting to the point where I am gonna need to force myself to eat something to keep my strength up but everything just sounds terrible to me right now. I have been subsisting mostly on small glasses of milk and the occasional packet of instant oatmeal.
Any suggestions on things to eat that go down easy and has nutritional value? Flavor is pretty far down on my list of requirements right now and I’m finding myself exhausted after chewing a few bites. Any serious suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Chicken soup has a good reputation in this regard.
I saw recently that chicken soup actually causes an immune response of some kind that helps make you better.
They used to call it “Jewish penicillin”
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In my area most people suggest Gatorade or pedialyte. Going without a meal or a few is okay, but make sure to drink and get electrolytes
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BRAT diet. Bananas rice applesauce toast.
Chicken soup, plain white rice, buttered toast, peanut butter, and crackers are all things I can usually tolerate when I feel that way. Sometimes banana or vanilla yogurt. I hope you feel better soon!
Nuts have a lot of calories in a small package, and as a migraneuse I can also verify that nuts and dried cherries are one of the least offensive things to deal with if you end up puking. If you have miso, miso soup is easy and gentle and tasty.
But mostly make sure you are drinking water with electrolytes. Your body can survive well without food calories for quite some time, and lack of appetite when sick may be a signal to fast and rest. Dehydration is much more likely and much more damaging.
Meal replacement shake (or bar) with calories, vitamins, and minerals. It’s what doctor’s recommended after I hit the pavement.
Chicken broth and saltine crackers.
Chicken broth, yes! I tend to cure my hungover with it. Works wonders.
Honestly a good smoothie from somewhere is all I can get down when I’m feeling like that. Filling for about an hour or two though but pack with vitamins and goodness.
I find greasy umami stuff in small quantities gets me from “hunger nausea” to “hunger”
E.g buttered toast.
So the taste of buttered toast is umami? In that case, I LOVE umami!
Congee / rice porridge. Cook rice way down until it’s breaking apart. You can go simple/traditional by cooking it in water with a little ginger, or kick it up a notch by cooking it in chicken broth to add more flavor.
Add some good (low sugar and low added fats) peanut butter or any other nut butter and/or ground nuts to your oats. Makes for a healthy and calorie rich meal that keeps you sated for a while. It’s easy on the stomach, does not cause the blood sugar to rise quickly and you can eat it spoon by spoon over the whole day, if necessary.
Also don’t forget to drink plenty. I find tea and highly diluted apple juice (like 10%) are ideal when I am sick.
Get better soon!
Thank you :)
Oatmeal is my go to! Whenever I land in the hospital due to my Crohn’s issues, I end up having a lot of it. It’s thick enough to feel full from it, and while it doesn’t have the most of nutrients, its better than nothing.
It helps that if you add some flavoring of your choice to it, it doesn’t taste bad and thus makes it even better.
Relevant recent post:
Ahaha, very relatable! Although personally I tend to keep mine relatively simple, I just add some cinnamon and sugar into mine (which is also what I do with Cream of Wheat for the few times that I have it).
Whenever you go to the hospital for GI related issues (or for surgeries in general I imagine), they always restrict you to not having anything to eat/drink, then they allow clear liquids, then they allow soft foods, and finally “full” (some hospitals will have a few other steps in between) and oatmeal falls into the “soft foods” category, but often times things like fruits won’t - but cinnamon and sugar has always been allowed for me so I’ve just gotten used to only having my oatmeal with those two things added in.
I do like to add a lot to my hot oats or overnight oats, but when I’m trying to cut calories I still find oats are good if and only if you add enough salt. Even plain oats and water is fine with salt. Without, it just tastes like feet.
I don’t quite get this meme, this is what cooking is. We add shit to everything to make it taste better. It’s like saying anyone defending chicken tells me it’s great once I add 17 things to it. Yea you can eat chicken plain but most of us now consider people that do so to be psychopaths when just salt and pepper makes it better, but there are still a ton of other ways to season or accent it with other ingredients.
Seasoning is not included in this I think. It’s only stuff like strawberries, banana and whatever people put in their oatmeal, idk, I don’t eat it. So actual other foods. I.e. a chicken breast by itself is a percectly fine food, a strawberry is as well.
But yeah I mean it’s meant to be a joke, like you say, things taste better/different together, or only taste good if mixed with something, and that’s perfectly fine.
while it doesn’t have the most of nutrients
You can always add fruit to it though. Frozen berries in oatmeal are fantastic. I also like adding peanut butter too.
Any soup is good imo. Like Cauliflower soup with bacon and garlic bread. Meat/vegetable soup.
As a last resort drinking broth can work.
It’s about getting energy into your body so you can heal
Disclaimer: English is not my first language and I’m too tired and sick to look them all up
Chicken noodle soup
