When you have a cold, you usually experience symptoms such as a stuffy nose, cough, and sore throat. When your throat is uncomfortable, even swallowing saliva can hurt. What should you do if you have a sore throat from a cold? Here are some dietary remedies for treating a sore throat from a cold.
Home Remedies for Colds and Sore Throat
1. Lily and Coltsfoot Flower Drink
Ingredients: 30-60g lily bulbs, 10-15g coltsfoot flowers, rock sugar to taste.
Preparation and administration: Place all ingredients in a clay pot and simmer to make a sweet syrup. Drink the syrup and eat the lily bulbs, preferably after dinner and before bedtime.
Indications and uses: Lily bulb moistens the lungs and relieves cough. Coltsfoot flower is pungent and warm, and has the effects of moistening the lungs, lowering qi, relieving cough, and resolving phlegm. The extract of this herb can slightly dilate the bronchi and has an antispasmodic effect on histamine-induced spasms. Therefore, it has the effects of relieving cough, expectorating phlegm, and relieving asthma. The combination of these two herbs has the effects of moistening the lungs, relieving cough, lowering qi, and resolving phlegm.
2. Ginger juice mixed with honey
Recipe: Half a spoonful of ginger juice, one spoonful of honey. Mix with warm water and drink. Take twice a day, morning and evening.
Ginger juice mixed with honey has the effects of soothing the stomach and lungs, resolving phlegm and relieving cough, and dispelling cold. It is commonly used in folk medicine to treat chronic coughs in the elderly, or dry coughs and coughs due to cold. Regarding the use of ginger and honey to treat coughs, the *Compendium of Materia Medica* records, "For chronic coughs, raw ginger and honey can be cooked and eaten." Raw ginger is pungent and warm in nature, entering the lung, spleen, and stomach meridians, and has the effects of releasing exterior pathogens and dispelling cold, warming the middle jiao and stopping vomiting, resolving phlegm and promoting urination, and detoxifying.
Ginger, when roasted with honey, is both moistening and soothing, relieving coughs caused by wind-phlegm in the lungs; ginger juice clears phlegm and unblocks the meridians. Honey, sweet and neutral in nature, is made by bees from the essence of hundreds of flowers and is an excellent food and medicine for nourishing the lungs, replenishing deficiencies, and strengthening the body.
It is "cooling in nature when raw, thus clearing heat; warming in nature when cooked, thus tonifying the middle; sweet and mild, thus detoxifying; soft and moistening, thus relieving dryness." Ginger juice, when moistened by honey, does not suffer from its pungent and warming properties that could harm the lungs; honey, when combined with ginger juice, regulates the middle jiao (digestive system), soothes the stomach, eliminates phlegm, and promotes digestion, without causing stagnation or congestion. They complement each other perfectly. However, it is not suitable for those with cough and diarrhea.
3. Steamed pear with fritillaria cirrhosa
Ingredients: One snow pear or duck pear, 6 grams of Sichuan fritillary bulb, and 20 grams of rock sugar.
Preparation and administration: Cut the pear at the stem end, hollow out and remove the core. Grind the fritillaria cirrhosa into powder and stuff it into the pear. Secure the stem back in place with toothpicks. Place the pear in a large bowl, add rock sugar and a small amount of water, and steam for half an hour. Consume the steamed pear and the fritillaria cirrhosa inside.
Efficacy and Indications: Fritillaria is an excellent medicine for resolving phlegm and relieving cough. When used with snow pear and rock sugar, it has the effects of resolving phlegm, relieving cough, moistening the lungs, and nourishing yin. It is used to treat persistent cough, excessive phlegm, dry throat, shortness of breath, and fatigue.
Other folk remedies for colds
1. When a cold and cough first appear, eating steamed tofu with white sugar before bed can be quite effective.
2. When you have a cold, a stuffy nose is very uncomfortable. You can apply a hot towel to both ears for ten minutes before going to bed to relieve or clear the stuffy nose.
3. Sugar and vinegar for sore throat: When you have a sore throat due to a cold, you can try mixing vinegar with white sugar and boiling water and drinking it. It should be effective in one or two days.
4. Slice one-third of an onion, add a little brown sugar and a bowl of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for ten minutes. One dose is effective, and two or three doses will cure the ailment. Scallions, fermented black beans, ginger, and brown sugar cooked together induce sweating and dispel cold.
5. Dice star fruit, oranges, apples, or other similar fruits, add water and bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-30 minutes. Drink while hot. This hot fruit tea promotes saliva production and relieves coughs. Star fruit clears heat and promotes saliva production, and can treat wind-heat coughs, mouth ulcers, swollen gums, and thirst. Apples can promote saliva production, quench thirst, moisten the lungs, and relieve summer heat. Orange pulp is moisturizing and good for the stomach, the peel resolves phlegm, relieves coughs, and strengthens the spleen and stomach, and the seeds have anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects.
6. For wind-heat type cold with sore throat, fever, and yellow phlegm, boil a large slice of ginger (about 9 grams), 6 scallions, and 0.5 kg of white and green radishes for 1 hour. It is quite effective after taking it.
7. Cabbage root for treating cough and phlegm: Wash and slice 3 cabbage roots, add 3 slices of fresh ginger, simmer in water to make a soup, drink it while hot, cover yourself with a blanket to sweat, and this can treat colds and flu. Alternatively, decoct 3 cabbage roots and 30 grams of rock sugar in water and drink the decoction 3 times a day to treat cough and phlegm.
8. Orange peel and coriander root for cough: If a cough caused by a cold persists for several days, try boiling orange peel and coriander root in water and drinking it three times a day for two consecutive days.
