Viral Fever Diet: Foods to Eat & Avoid During Viral Fever

Viral fever, characterised by high fever, headaches, body aches, and fatigue, can last anywhere from 7–10 days. During this time, your body fights the infection on its own; eating a balanced, healthy diet during viral fever can help you recover quickly. Consuming vitamin C-rich foods can help boost your immune system, whereas consuming processed foods or alcohol can harm your health. Watching your diet when you have viral fever is extremely important.

People often complain about nausea and a diminished appetite, but your body needs nutrition and energy as much as it needs to rest. Here you will find some food recommendations to create the best viral fever diet chart and heal quickly.

Foods to eat during viral fever

When you are down with viral fever, you should eat light meals that are easy to digest and ensure you take in enough fluids. Here are some recommendations of what you should eat during a viral fever infection:

Soups
Soups are full of nutrition, easy to digest, and provide plenty of hydration. Whether you prefer vegetable broth or chicken soup, this food item is highly recommended for viral fever. Additionally, soups are easy to prepare. You can try different soup recipes, such as broccoli soup, sweet corn soup, tomato soup, and chicken soup with boiled eggs, during your recovery period to ensure your body gets enough nutrients.

Adding ginger in your soup is also a good idea to enhance the flavour, reduce inflammation, and strengthen your immune system.

Green and leafy vegetables
Rich in vitamin C, vitamin E, and other micro-nutrients, green vegetables are extremely beneficial for you, especially when you are under the weather. Spinach, bottle gourd, broccoli, cabbage, are excellent foods for viral fever as they make your immune system stronger.

You can incorporate them into a smoothie, salad, or chapati or vegetable preparation. Most green vegetables are packed with nutrition and easy to digest, making them one of the best foods for viral fever.

Citrus fruits
All citrus fruits are packed with vitamin C, which is a great immunity booster. Including fruits, like oranges, kiwis, sweet limes, strawberries, and gooseberries, in your viral fever diet chart is a great way to ensure a speedy recovery. Your doctor may also prescribe vitamin C supplements to boost your immunity; it is preferable to eat citrus fruits instead as your body can absorb it better this way. These are one of the best foods for viral fever.

Oatmeal
Oatmeal is a versatile food item that can be prepared in different variations, such as oat pudding, boiled oats, and oat khichdi. People suffering from viral fever can benefit from this simple-to-prepare nutritious food item. It is rich in beta-glucan fibre and vitamin E, which makes it excellent for your heart and immune system and for maintaining your blood-sugar levels, in addition to aiding digestion.

You can make a smoothie with oats soaked overnight or a warm preparation with milk, fruits, and nuts to enhance the nutritional content of the meal.

Coconut water
Being rich in electrolytes, potassium, and glucose, coconut water helps you regain your energy in addition to providing hydration. People with viral fever should consider adding coconut water to their diet. This also improves your digestion and helps you recover quickly.

Herbal tea
Sipping a cup of warm tea infused with ginger, basil leaves, and/or cloves can soothe your throat and improve your health. This works especially well for viral fevers that cause symptoms like a sore throat. If you don’t like tea with milk, you can prepare a ginger lemon tea with honey to comfort your sore throat.

Khichdi and porridge
One of the best comfort foods of India, khichdi and porridge are extremely easy to prepare and full of nutrition. Khichdi, prepared with rice, toor dal, and some vegetables for extra nutrition, is a wonderful food to eat in viral fever. If you get bored of eating the khichdi, try a sweet porridge (also known as daliya) with milk or a savoury preparation with vegetables to mix it up. These foods will also assist you in returning to your normal diet. Turmeric milk
Drinking warm milk with turmeric helps people with viral fever reduce inflammation and heal quickly.

Banana
Mildly flavoured and nutrition-packed bananas are extremely good for people with viral fever infections. They are rich in essential micronutrients, including potassium, vitamin C, magnesium, and manganese, for maintaining a healthy body. Bananas are also easy on your digestive system.

Curd
You may have heard that consuming curd during viral fever is not good for your health. However, you will be surprised by the health benefits of curd during viral fever. It is a good source of probiotics, which help support the immune system and improve digestion and the absorption of nutrients. Eating plain curd without sugar can be quite helpful for you. If you are concerned about consuming curd while suffering from viral fever, perform a “patch test.” Consume a small quantity of curd and see how it affects your body; you can include curd in your meals if you don’t see any negative reactions.

Foods to avoid in viral fever

Your body fights viral fever infection on its own; most medication for viral fever is aimed at managing the symptoms and supporting your immune system to perform well. As a result, providing your body with the proper fuel and nutrition is critical to your recovery. Now that you know which foods help you recover quickly, here are some items that you should avoid during viral fever:

Processed foods
Your fast-paced life may encourage you to consume processed foods, but the nutrient content of this food decreases with each processing cycle. Processed food is not good for you when you are healthy; it can deprive your body of the required nutrition it needs, especially when you are sick.

Alcohol and caffeinated beverages
Viral fever is usually accompanied by dehydration as your body tries to fight the infection and flush out the virus. Drinking alcohol weakens your immune system and further dehydrates your body. You should also avoid beverages like coffee and tea to avoid dehydration.

Fat-rich food items
In viral fever, your digestive system may not be able to digest heavy food items that are rich in fat, which may lead to diarrhoea. Doctors recommend eating an easy-to-digest meals for patients with viral fever.

Simple sugars
Food items such as candies, toffees, and sweetened beverages are low in nutrition and can aggravate diarrhoea. *People who have viral gastroenteritis should avoid or limit dairy products, such as milk, curd, or paneer, as their digestive systems may not be able to digest the lactose present in these food items easily.