Protecting families from contaminated food and water
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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Our Blog on June 7, 2025
Science gives merit to grandmothers everywhere, potentially proving the old adage, feed a cold and starve a fever principle.
Well. Sort of…
Recent research has, however, found that while antibiotic resistance is caused by over or misuse of antibiotics, there is more going on under the surface. In fact, another strong factor appears to be something more mundane.
Nutrient availability.
Or rather, lack thereof.
So, should you really feed a cold (or other infection) for better immune or pharmaceutical response?
Let’s explore this recent research paper and unwrap those results.
Scientists from the University of Basel in Switzerland, recently published a paper in the journal, Nature, titled Limited Impact of Salmonella stress and persisters on antibiotic clearance.
This paper dove into what made Salmonella bacteria resist antibiotic treatment. In addition to finding flaws in previous research observation methods, they discovered that the bulk of antibiotic resistance did not come from a mass mutation of bacteria designed to overcome antibiotic induced death and the few “persisters” remaining after antibiotic treatment.
However, Professor Dirk Bumann’s team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has now debunked this prevailing concept. “Contrary to widespread belief, antibiotic failure is not caused by a small subset of persisters. In fact, the majority of Salmonella in infected tissues are difficult to kill,” explains Bumann. He added, “We have been able to demonstrate that standard laboratory tests of antimicrobial clearance produce misleading results, giving a false impression of a small group of particularly resilient persisters.”
Why are they called persisters?
Because. Well. They persist!
Sometimes scientists are creative. This was not one of those times.
Despite a wordsmith not being on the team, these scientists were truly on to something.
There is more to the story than these persisters.
To overcome an obstacle that is attempting to evade you, you must understand it. Know thy enemy and such.
So, what else is going on during antibiotic resistance?
The victor must be one step ahead in order to win.
Turns out, there were certain key factors often overlooked during this process. Factors these scientists decided to exploit and observe to get to the bottom of the problem.
But how you measure the outcome may also play a role. These scientists discovered a serious flaw in methods commonly used to measure bacterial count.
When measuring the impact of antibiotics on a bacterial infection, a reliable way of counting surviving bacteria is important. But unfortunately, this research uncovered a flaw commonly encountered in antimicrobial-resistance research.
Most studies measure the number of bacteria present at the end of a period. Scientists in this study went about it in a different way. They used real-time assays, which showed “uniformly slow damage.”
While it appears that a few bacteria “persist” despite antibiotic treatment. In truth, the entire bacterial population in the study displayed slow pathogen death.
This misinterpretation has led researchers down multiple rabbit holes attempting to better understand the mechanisms.
The research team used mice as the animal model of this study. More specifically, mouse spleens. By looking at how the body’s natural immune system responds to Salmonella and then what happens when antibiotics are administered, these scientists were able to see the bigger picture.
They found that a natural defense mechanism employed by the mouse immune system involves reducing nutrient availability. A defensive action the human body also uses to help starve harmful pathogens. But this technique appears to backfire.
“Under nutrient-scarce conditions, bacteria grow very slowly,” says Dirk Bumann, one of the authors. “This may seem good at first, but is actually a problem because most antibiotics only gradually kill slowly growing bacteria.” Consequently, the antibiotics become significantly less effective, leading to potential relapses even after extended treatment.
So, increased nutrition during times of illness is more important than ever.
So maybe your grandmother was right when she wanted to feed a cold with chicken soup and whatever else she could get you to hold down. Increasing nutrient dense foods during times of infection not only “gets your strength up” as they used to call it but bumps up the nutrients available in your body.
But is there more to it?
Of course.
While nutrition is key for just about all of our bodily functions, that chicken soup can’t permeate at the cellular level. The body controls where it sends things.
But it couldn’t hurt?
Make your grandmother happy and feed a cold anyway, ok.
While not discussed in this research paper, there could also be a glimmer of truth in this adage as well.
When fasting, you likely consume more liquids. An essential combatant for dehydration.
Drinking cool water could help your body cool down further.
So maybe there is truth to those words of wisdom as well.
What are your thoughts on the adage, feed a cold and starve a fever? Are there other old wives tales you find some truth behind. Do socks really prevent you from “catching cold.” Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? How many licks does it actually take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?
Only peer reviewed, fact checked, and scrutinized research has the answers.
If you’d like to know more about food safety topics in the news, like “Scientist Find Connection Between Nutrition and Antibiotic Resistance, Supporting the Feed a Cold and Starve a Fever Adage,” check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)