I have never understood that one either, Lady E. Dr. Dahlink's advice: toast and tea (lots of hot tea!) Feel better soon!

I agree with Dahlink, I''m not sure that saying makes any sense at all. But, EL, to add to her already good advice, Advil Cold and Sinus works really well (but you have to reassure the pharmacy that you aren't using it for your home meth lab.)

a.
but it's the other way around, feed a fever.

You mean it's "starve a cold, feed a fever"? No wonder it never worked for me. Or is the meaning the same either way? EL

The fever IS the cure. Sweat it out.

I don't have a fever. Are you saying it means I should starve a cold so I get a fever so it cures me? EL

That's what I'm saying. It was proven conclusively about thirty years ago that fevers kill cold viruses and that fever reducers/analgesics such as acetominophen or aspirin create a more hospitable atmosphere for viruses. Fasting causes your body to burn stores of energy within the body and in my experience create internal heat. Drink only cleansing fluids to kick start the body into burning reserves. Greeen tea, water, herb teas, carrot and beet juice are good. Orange juice is terrible. It's pasteurized garbage. Oranges and grapefruits on an empty stomach are cleansing and full of nutrition. Ginger and garlic in massive amounts. I grated fresh ginger and add to herb teas and strain. I add garlic to hot broth. Sweat it out!

Burn baby burn!

I hope you feel better soon.

Has anyone else here gotten the feeling that the Sandbox is our version of Facebook and that we are all EL's friends? Certainly, we seem as addicted to D@L as some folks are to FB and find this a great way to keep up with cyber-friends. Just a thought...

Acupuncture can speed things along too...
and chicken soup.

Eat nothing but pork brains in milk and drink Wild Turkey and within a week to ten days your cold will be gone.

bra1nchild - much more fun here than facebook!

For me, nothing works better than matzoh ball soup from Attman's... It doesn't beat my cousin's, but it sure comes close. Jewish penicillin!

EEL has a point with that Wild Turkey.

Seriously though, about the feed a cold and starve a fever? When I have a fever, I don't feel like eating anything anyway, so I don't and just drink liquids. I stay away from juices mostly and drink water and maybe some teas.
When I have a cold (not since November, knock on wood!) it doesn't really affect my appetite.

Christopher Walken cures his fever with more cowbell.
Have you tried more cowbell?

Wild Turkey may not cure your cold but you won't care about it anymore, that's for sure!

jl - a woman I worked with and I used to call Christopher Walken "the scary guy" because we'd always forget his name. With just that description, we both knew exactly who we meant!

Elizabeth, Sudafed 12-Hour is stocked behind the counter, but you can't have it if you have high blood pressure -- whatever drug it contains can drive up some folks' blood pressure. You have to show your driver's license and sign your life away, but it works GREAT!

I think the saying means you should eat even tho you don't want to when you're harboring a cold, to keep up your strength to fight the dang cold. I recommend chicken soup and tea, with or without booze. Let's face it, you can take an OCT medication and kick the cold in about a week, or get something from the doctor and it'll be gone in about 7 days (grin). Hope you're better VERY soon.

I focus on sleeping and fluids for both colds and fevers. However, ginger tea usually tastes really good, and seems to help. I just boil a peeled hunk of ginger (a piece maybe 2-3 sq. inches worth in a smallish saucepan) for 5 min. or more. Then I drink it. Most people add honey.

I also like really spicy food when I have a cold.

I wouldn't want to give Christopher Walken anything for safekeeping, that is for sure.

"the scary guy"

Malkovich!

Chicken broth with as much garlic and cayenne powder as you can bear. Don't cook the garlic – press it, chop finely, or my favorite – run through a ginger grater and add to the hot broth. You want the garlic as close to raw as possible. The more you cook it the weaker the effect. The good thing is that when you have a cold you can tolerate much more cayenne and garlic.

I've been drinking tons of homemade herb tea today and yesterday just in case blogs spread germs (hibiscus, rose hips, hawthorn berries, fresh ginger. lime juice, chamomile and some others). I made five quarts of it. No caffeine so you can drink it all day and night.

Grandmother's chicken soup turns out to be the only one that really has a basis for a curative reputation. It turns out that there are compounds in the thyroid glands in chicken necks that are anti-virals. No neck, no cure.

The Wild Turkey and benedryl works too if you want to just sleep through it.

I'm with Bonnie on acupuncture--visited my practitioner yesterday as a preventive measure, as a matter of fact!

accupuncture is good. sleeping in a pyramid is better. if you have an extra virgin hanging around you could try human sacrifice.

I like lambs better for sacrifices. Much more tasty.

Joyce, you must stop feeding me straight lines. Erm...or something like that.

Lissa - laughed out loud - literally! Nothing else I can (safely) say!