Foods to avoid for colds and coughs

Written by Hu Bai Yu
Pulmonology
Updated on June 23, 2025
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For patients with colds and coughs, it is essential to be cautious about certain foods in daily life, which are best avoided. For example, spicy, greasy, raw, cold, and stimulating foods should be avoided. Also, carbonated beverages, strong tea, coffee, or alcoholic drinks should be avoided to prevent worsening the cold and cough symptoms. Additionally, some tropical fruits like mango, durian, longan, and lychee should also be avoided. These fruits are warm in nature and may exacerbate phlegm production, aggravating the cold and cough. During a cold and cough, it is advisable to eat a bland diet, such as properly consuming apples, pears, bananas, grapefruits, and oranges. It's also important to drink plenty of water, which can help soothe the throat.

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What should I do if I have a cold, headache, and nasal congestion?

Symptoms such as cold, headache, and nasal congestion should be treated accordingly. It is advisable to drink plenty of water and avoid eating irritating foods. Check your body temperature, and if there are symptoms of fever, you can take aspirin or acetaminophen to treat the fever and headache. For nasal congestion, you can take oral medications that suppress gland secretion, or use some nasal drops locally to relieve the swelling of the nasal mucosa and control the sensation of congestion. Drink plenty of water, rest more, and avoid spicy foods and seafood.

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Do you still need to take cold medicine for a cough in the later stages of a cold?

Patients with colds are generally caused by viral infections and are often self-limiting diseases, usually recovering completely within about a week. In a minority of patients, different degrees of cough may occur later on. For such cases, where there is throat itchiness and varying degrees of dryness in the throat, or even cough symptoms, it is generally not necessary to continue with cold medicine. Instead, antiviral medications and throat-clearing drugs can be used for symptomatic treatment to relieve the cough that appears later. As for the later cough, if it is a dry cough, use some cough suppressants. If there is phlegm with the cough, appropriate cough suppressants should also be used, along with antibiotics for symptomatic treatment, to provide relief. However, the use of cold medicines that relieve nasal congestion and runny nose is generally not advised at this stage.

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What to eat when you have a cold and cough?

If you have a cold and cough, it is advisable to eat a light diet and consider taking some cough suppressant medicine to relieve the symptoms. Additionally, one can eat fresh fruits and vegetables like pears, loquats, grapefruits, and watermelons, which help clear heat and detoxify the body, reducing internal heat. Both pears and loquats additionally help moisten the lungs and relieve coughs and dissolve phlegm. It is also recommended to drink some honey water, which can moisten the lungs and relieve dryness. It is important to avoid spicy, greasy, raw, and irritating foods. You can also drink some porridge, eat soft noodles or small green vegetables, soy milk, and tofu. Thus, it is recommended to pay attention to diet for managing and effectively treating cold and cough symptoms.

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Symptoms of a cold in a baby over 40 days old

The symptoms of a cold in a baby over 40 days old are definitely different from those in adults. Parents should observe whether the baby's behavior has changed. For example, if the baby becomes noticeably fussy or irritable, especially while sleeping, or if the baby has nasal congestion, a runny nose, or sneezing, these could be signs. Also, if the baby drools bubbles at the corners of the mouth while sleeping quietly, breathes noticeably faster, vomits milk after feeding more frequently than usual, or if there is an increase in the frequency and looseness of stools and bloating, these may indicate a cold. If cold symptoms appear, please seek medical attention promptly, as babies have weaker immune systems and their conditions can progress quickly. Without timely intervention, it is easy for the condition to develop into pneumonia.

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Gastrointestinal cold and fever, how many degrees?

Gastrointestinal cold is a very common type of cold clinically, mainly caused by viruses invading the respiratory tract, leading to patients experiencing fever, with generally high body temperature during fever. For patients with fever, since the severity of viral infection varies from person to person, the clinical symptoms of fever and the degree of fever also vary. The specific degree of fever in Celsius depends on the detailed condition of each patient. Typically, the fever in a gastrointestinal cold is above 39°C, and the patient may also experience nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, nasal congestion, and a runny nose, among other clinical symptoms.