Foods that are prohibited when coughing and other restrictions

When coughing, in addition to taking medication, you are usually advised not to go out often at night, get plenty of rest to avoid stress. The goal is of course to immediately relieve persistent cough or other accompanying health problems. Not only that, adhering to prohibited food and drink restrictions while coughing can also help prevent coughing or make your condition worse.

What foods and drinks are prohibited when coughing?

In general, cough is a symptom of flu. Although coughs caused by the flu are usually mild and go away on their own, you should never underestimate the condition. In addition to making the body uncomfortable, prolonged coughing can trigger other respiratory infections, making the cough condition even more serious.

Good cough treatment through non-prescription cough medicines (over-the-counter /over-the-counter medicines), as well as natural cough medicines will not be effective if you do not comply with some cough restrictions, one of which is by continuing to consume foods and drinks that can worsen cough conditions.

Avoiding prohibited foods and drinks when coughing can help you speed up healing. Not only that, adhering to dietary restrictions will also help you prevent this condition from getting worse

1. Fried foods

Maybe you often hear the advice to avoid fried foods when coughing. As it turns out, this is indeed true. In fact, it is not the food that makes coughs worse, but the oil used for frying.

Oil, especially used cooking oil, which has been used repeatedly, produces acrolein compounds which will trigger an excruciating itching sensation in the throat. The more often and the greater the amount of oil used, the worse the quality of the oil will be. This of course endangers health.

Not only that, the rough texture of fried foods can also irritate the throat wall. The impact is worse if you have a dry cough.

Another reason why fried foods are foods to avoid when coughing is that they can cause acid reflux and food allergies. Increased reflux of stomach acid can lead to narrowing of the airways and then cause coughing.

So, as long as the cough condition has not improved, you should avoid consuming foods that are prohibited while coughing to prevent this condition from getting worse.

2. Beverages containing caffeine

Apart from food, there are also types of drinks that need to be avoided by consuming excessively when coughing. Caffeine-containing drinks are some of them.

This is because caffeine can trigger acid gas from the stomach to rise back up into the throat. This condition can cause the throat to feel itchy. As a result, your cough gets worse and doesn't go away.

Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, and soda which you should avoid while coughing. To relieve cough, you don't have to stop drinking caffeine altogether. However, it is important that you limit them.

3. Processed foods

You can prevent your cough from getting worse by staying away from processed foods, such as packaged foods, fast food, and chips. Not without reason, a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, states that nutrition has an important role to support the immune system's work to fight infection.

In other words, optimal nutrition in the body can strengthen the immune system to fight coughs. Processed foods tend to be less nutrient dense. That is why, try to consume it with complete nutrition when sick.

If you are confused about what processed foods are prohibited when you cough, you can eat foods that are rich in vegetable protein, such as soybeans and vegetables. These foods can help fight viral infections that cause coughs.

4. Food allergy triggers

Various health problems can cause coughing. Apart from a viral infection, cough is one of the symptoms of an allergic reaction. Allergic conditions occur when there is an overreaction of the immune system to substances in food.

There are several foods that cause allergies to make your cough worse. These foods can be in the form of seafood, eggs, nuts, and others. Recognizing foods that can trigger allergies in the body as well as avoiding them, is one great way to relieve or even prevent coughs altogether.

Apart from causing a cough, continuing to eat allergenic foods can also trigger more serious allergic reactions such as seizures and shortness of breath. Allergy-triggering foods with milk-based ingredients can also cause indigestion in children and toddlers.

Abstinence to prevent coughing from getting worse

When you have a cough, there are many dietary and beverage restrictions that must be followed. In order to further minimize the severity of coughs, in addition to paying attention to what is consumed, you also need to avoid an unhealthy lifestyle.

As long as the cough symptoms have not subsided, stop doing some of these bad health habits:

1. Smoking

Secondhand smoke can irritate the lining of the throat and lungs, so a cough that worsens recovery can even increase the risk of cancer. If you have a cough from a common respiratory infection such as a cold, smoking can cause lung problems, such as bronchitis.

Not only active smokers need to be aware of the dangers of smoking when coughing. Passive smokers also need to avoid cigarette smoke as much as possible if they want the cough to subside immediately and not experience complications of respiratory diseases.

2. Eat a lot at night

When coughing, try not to overeat at night, especially just before bed. Eating too much before bed can trigger a persistent cough in the person experiencing it gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) aka acid reflux disease.

As a result, stomach acid can flow back up into the upper digestive tract and cause irritation, which can lead to coughing. The ideal distance between eating and sleeping is at least 2 hours.

3. Sleep on your back

The position of the body when sleeping is one of the factors that affect your cough condition. Sleeping on your back can trigger a cough at night, especially if you have a cough with phlegm. This sleeping position can cause phlegm to build up in the respiratory tract, triggering a persistent cough. To prevent coughing, try sleeping on your side so that the phlegm can drain.

4. Working too late

Overtime and overdoing it too late should be avoided when you are coughing. Fatigue from overtime can weaken the immune system. Even though the body's immunity plays an important role in fighting diseases that cause you to cough.

The type of food that is recommended when coughing

Besides needing to avoid consuming prohibited foods when coughing, you should also increase your consumption of other foods so that the cough is quickly resolved, such as:

• Increase daily consumption of vegetables and fruits.
• Drink natural cough medicine from a mixture of honey, herbal tea, and lemon regularly. If you consume too much tea, you can replace herbal teas with warm water.
• Eat warm and protein-rich foods, such as chicken soup. Soup foods help thin the phlegm that clogs the respiratory tract. In addition, the combination of vegetables and broth can be a powerful ingredient that can help reduce inflammation in the airways.
• Increase fluids to avoid dehydration so that the healing process can take place faster.

It is important to remember, adopting a healthy diet with a nutritious diet does not necessarily stop the persistent cough you experience. However, by avoiding prohibited foods when coughing and eating healthy foods, your immune system will increase to fight infection.