[letharion]

This seems to go hand in hand with the idea, suggested by Jason Fung and others, that one should fast when sick.

If we stop eating, then there's less nutrients available for invaders, who have a large need to grow and replicate so they can spread to the next host. The human body doesn't need to rapidly grow though, so it can go without much food for a few days.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

The centruries old saying is starve a fever, feed a cold.

But probably the best thing to do is: eat (but not too much) if you're hungry, don't if you're not (but probably don't go too many days without food).

[hutzlibu]

And the body can focus on fighting the disease and not digestion, which is work, too. I am currently sick and I just don't want to eat (much), so I won't. That's why we have fat reserves.

[nradov]

Anecdotally, several people have told that they lost a few pounds of fat while suffering from mild COVID-19 symptoms despite still eating during the course of the disease. And this was real fat loss, not just dehydration. Fighting the infection seems to burn a lot of calories.

[joshmarinacci]

Interesting. I’ve been sick for the past 48hours and have zero appetite, but very thirsty for plain water.

[nabla9]

Do you have fever? Digestive proteins don't work well when you get fever. It becomes harder to absorb nutrition from food.

[unglaublich]

So you would expect that you need _more_ food to absorb the same amount of nutrients.

[nabla9]

Yes, but it stresses metabolism even more. When your immune system is using energy, stressing it with food if you are not suffering from malnutrition may not help.

Instead of eating, try resting and laying still. Don't even watch movies. Maybe listen only music or listen podcasts if you must.

This is just anecdotal and personal, but if I just have patience to stay still and lay down, I usually get better faster.

[LarryMullins]

The presumed point is to have fewer nutrients. Reduced appetite accomplishes this, as do less efficient digestive processes. Both together should compliment each other.

[letharion]

I tried finding the articles I learned this from originally, but he appears to have migrated to a new blog and I can no longer find the sources, but IIRC Fung claims that this is the bodies way of solving precisely the "no-nutrients-for-the-invader" problem. Just dial down hunger as low as possible, to avoid eating.