Take a bite out of the flu! 6 bug-fighting foods

By Megan O. Steintrager

updated 11:53 a.m. ET Nov. 5, 2009

Have you noticed that people who normally shun shots are scrambling to get flu vaccines this year? And that's just the "regular" flu shot — vaccinations against H1N1, or "swine flu," aren't even widely available yet. At Epicurious, we're always looking for a food solution to any problem, so we contacted John La Puma, M.D., the author of "ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine," for advice about what to eat to boost immunity and fight the flu.

Before we jump into La Puma's list of top flu-fighting foods, here are a few notes from the doctor:

• Swine flu is most likely to be spread the same way as any kind of flu — from person-to-person contact, through coughing and sneezing — and the "best and easiest protection" against flu, including swine flu, is to "wash your hands often, for 15 to 20 seconds, with soap and water, or with an alcohol-based hand cleaner, [rubbing] until your hands are dry."
  
  
• You can't get swine flu from eating pork or from drinking bottled or tap water, two common myths about contagion.
  
  
• People with immunity problems, such as thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and celiac disease, should talk to their doctors before upping their intake of immunity-boosting foods, because "their immune systems are already overstimulated."
  
  
• Some reputed immunity-boosters, including garlic, foods high in zinc (such as oysters and peanuts), and foods rich in conjugated linoleic acid (hard cheeses) have not been proven to fight the flu.

Read on for the six foods La Puma says should be in your flu season diet.

Quercetin powerhouse produce: Apples, onions, broccoli, and tomatoes
Quercetin is one of many thousands of flavonoids — substances that are responsible for plants' colors, as well as many of their health benefits. La Puma says that in research performed on mice, stressful exercise increased flu susceptibility but quercetin canceled out the negative effects. The same illness-fighting results were found in a study on cyclists, La Puma says, citing a study from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Quercetin is also believed to aid in disease prevention thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties (to learn more about inflammation, read our feature on the Anti-Inflammatory Diet). So load up on quercetin-packed produce, including apples, onions, broccoli, and tomatoes. Tip: When buying tomatoes, consider choosing organic, which La Puma says have higher levels of quercetin than conventionally grown ones (the same is true for lycopene in tomatoes).

• Recipes to try: Vegetable and Chickpea Ragout; Frisée and Apple Salad with Dried Cherries and Walnuts; Black Sea Bass with Moroccan Vegetables and Chile Sauce

Chicken soup
It's not a suburban legend: Chicken soup really does have healing properties, according to La Puma. A steaming bowl of soup (unappetizing language alert) "reduces mucus and facilitates coughing it up." And it seems that chicken soup is more effective at the job than hot water, according to research cited by La Puma. To get the anti-inflammatory and other health benefits of produce too, the doctor suggests making chicken soup with vegetables rather than using store-bought condensed soup or cooking with chicken alone. He shares a favorite recipe for Simple Sopa Azteca on his Web site, and Epicurious has dozens of healthy chicken and vegetable soup recipes, including the ones below.

• Recipes to try: Hearty Chicken Vegetable Soup; Chicken and Hominy Soup; Chicken and White Bean Soup with Herb Swirl

Green tea
Add fighting the flu to the long list of green tea's health benefits, which also include fighting cancer and heart disease and possible links to "lowering cholesterol, burning fat, preventing diabetes and stroke, and staving off dementia," according to WebMD. Green tea is high in "anti-viral activity against influenza," says La Puma, citing studies involving green tea from the Dr. Rath Research Institute in Santa Clara, CA, and the Department of Biotechnology, College of Engineering, Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. While all kinds of tea are made from the same leaves, white and green teas contain higher levels of catechins — the flavonoids thought to be responsible for tea's antiviral properties — than oolong and black teas. Although the studies La Puma cites involved green tea, it's likely that white tea has similar flu-fighting powers. Black and oolong tea do have some catechins and are higher than green tea in other polyphenols, so while they might be the second choice for the flu, they are still good for overall health.

• Recipes to try: Green-Tea Soy Broth; Scallop Tea Rice; Angel Punch

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