Are there certain foods/dishes you crave when you’re getting sick? Not when you’re in the midst of a head cold, but in the run up to one?
Oddly, I’ve discovered that when I’m courting a cold, I develop a serious obsession with…canned tuna*! It’s not something I normally eat**, much less crave, likely due to childhood trauma (someday I shall write a post titled “My Mother’s Tuna Concoctions” that will illuminate this period of my life).
Here’s where it gets even more odd: the craving begins before any symptoms (at least symptoms I can identify) appear. My body’s desiring of the canned tuna usually starts about 72-hours prior to the symptoms becoming apparent. I’ve now learned that when the cravings hit, the sinuses are going to feel like crud in a couple of days (so I up the amount of water I’m drinking, add in fresh Vitamin C and orange juice, and then wait).
In talking with my mother and sister, they experience the same weird, out-of-the-blue tuna cravings when they’re developing head colds. Yet none of us have ever met anyone else who does this.
Are we terribly abnormal?
*It has to be canned tuna - fresh doesn’t cut it, at all.
**At this point in my life I eat >95% vegetarian and >70% vegan; the remaining 5% is reserved for shellfish and yes, canned tuna.
Hmm, don’t think so. Usually for me, not having an appetite is a sign I’m getting sick. Once I’m on the upswing, I go for pho, tom kha, or hot & sour soup.
My husband will eat anything and everything that is not nailed down when he is getting sick … not sure what this is about but it happens every single time.
Me … it’s soup
I ain’t much of a burger kinda guy, but if I feel like I might be coming down with something, I grab a greasy cheeseburger. It, somehow, is what does it.
If not, and I actually get down, I go for chicken soup. Preferably avgolemono.
For myself Elsie . You get that little scratch in your throat . Feel a little off kilter . I start downing the Airborne . I go on lock down . Don’t’ like to spread my germs in public . I hate food when I’m sick . Maybe some scrambled eggs . I sleep and I am in a S.O.B mood . Never had a craving before becoming ill and I would never eat that food again that I consumed ,
That is really odd! Especially considering your past Tuna Trauma…
I mostly just notice that even with a regular night sleep i’m extra exhausted and need more coffee than usual to function. I also lose my appetite a bit, just nothing seems appealing whereas most days i am very decisive.
Once i realize I’m getting sick it’s lots of green juice and miso soup. (I’m very lucky that I rarely do sick but somehow i end up with bronchitis once a winter)
Anything hot and spicy. I know I’m weird but I feel that if I eat the so called sick food, soup, broth, ect. I will stay sick longer so I just try and burn all the impurities out!
