Dietary Strategies to Kick a Cold or Flu The first thing you want to do when you feel yourself coming down with a cold or flu is to avoid ALL sugars, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods. Sugar is particularly damaging to your immune system -- which needs to be ramped up, not suppressed, in order to combat an emerging infection. This includes fructose from fruit juice, and all types of grains (as they break down as sugar in your body). Ideally, you must address nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress issues the moment you first feel yourself getting a bug. This is when immune-enhancing strategies will be most effective. Foods that will help strengthen your immune response include: Raw, grass-fed organic milk, and/or high-quality whey protein Fermented foods such as raw kefir, kimchee, miso, pickles, sauerkraut Raw, organic eggs from pastured chickens Grass-fed beef Coconuts and coconut oil Organic vegetables Garlic. Ideally consumed raw and crushed just before eating Turmeric, oregano, cinnamon, cloves Mushrooms, especially Reishi, Shiitake, and Maitake Make sure to drink plenty of pure water. Water is essential for the optimal function of every system in your body and will help with nose stuffiness and loosening secretions. You should drink enough water so that your urine is a light, pale yellow. As for chicken soup, yes, it can indeed help reduce cold symptoms. Chicken contains a natural amino acid called cysteine, which can thin the mucus in your lungs and make it less sticky so you can expel it more easily. Processed, canned soups won't work as well as the homemade version, however. For best results, make up a fresh batch yourself (or ask a friend or family member to do so) and make the soup hot and spicy with plenty of pepper. The spices will trigger a sudden release of watery fluids in your mouth, throat, and lungs, which will help thin down the respiratory mucus so it's easier to cough up and expel.