The Doctor Is In

Emily was sick last week and did the typical sleep and decongestant routine. Then on day day two she decided to stop eating. Apparently she actually took to heart the whole "feed a fever, starve a cold" advice from I don't know when. Maybe from the same doctor who thought leeches were a dandy way to get disease out of the bloodstream.

Anyway Emily did indeed begin feeling better after starving herself. I guess she got this idea from me, since I mindlessly tell her "feed a fever..." henever she gets the sniffles. But did her health improve because of this baseless advice or simply because two days had past and she had been resting?

So I did some in-depth research (i.e. sat on my ass in front of the computer and went to Google. And as far as I can tell, not only is there no basis for "feed a fever, starve a cold," people are still trying to figure out if it's "feed a fever, starve a cold," or "feed a cold, strave a fever."

Click here for Cecil Adam's (of The Straight Dope fame) take on the issue.

Or Click here to see what some guy who claims to have THE TRUTH about Old Wives' Tales thinks about all this.

Or, for the more clinical-minded, click here for a more objective overview.