What Do You Eat When You Feel Like Shit?

Hello and welcome back toWhat’s Cooking? , an open thread where you can share your brilliant thoughts, tips, recipes and opinions on all food related matters. This week I want to know what you eat when you are sick, have a hangover, or just feel unwell.

The disease turns me into a big, moody kid who needs a lot of sleep and Gatorade (only red), with very specific eating habits. Likewise, a hangover requires a certain amount of food and drink, although when I am hungover, all these things can only do a lot. Anyway. I want to hear from you how you eat and drink to cope with the feeling of shit, whether those feelings are the result of actual illness or self-induced poisoning / dehydration. As always, I have a few questions for you.

  • Do you have a favorite “I’m sick” soup? Chicken rice soup is a must for me. I usually order this here .
  • What drink do you need for an upset stomach? The only time I don’t drink Diet Coke is when I’m sick; the disease requires red Gatorade and plenty of soda. If I have a hangover, I eat DC.
  • Is there a healing juice or elixir that you swear by? My ex made these really rich spreads with lots of garlic, ginger and pepper and ate them with spoons. He claimed that it helped him recover from his illness, but I have never seen any evidence of this.
  • Do you have a hangover cure, or at least something to ease the pain? Diet Coke and breakfast sandwiches used to help me get well, but now the only thing that works is not drinking so much and lying very, very still.
  • Is there a special cuisine that you crave in bad weather? I always want Thai food when I feel bad, but the last time I was sick, my partner brought me Popeye’s and I wasn’t mad about it. Red beans and rice are surprisingly rejuvenating.
  • Does coffee help or hurt a hangover? I don’t even smell coffee if I have a bad hangover. I don’t know why, but it just makes me sick.
  • Do you try to eat right when you are sick, or allow yourself to be entertained? I tend to allow myself to enjoy whatever I want. That is, I already feel terrible, so why deprive myself of the joys of ice cream?
  • Do you drink alcohol when you are sick? Sometimes I will drink punch if I have a sore throat, but I try not to do this because I’m afraid of getting sick and hangover at the same time.

As always, feel free to leave comments that are at least slightly relevant to the topic. If it has to do with relieving physical discomfort with food and drink, I want to hear about it.

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