To have burst my mum’s bubble re: ribena?

[Sapphire387]

Talking to my mum on the phone earlier and she was telling me how she was going to stock up on Ribena because she heard on the radio that Dominic Cummings had been really ill with coronavirus but his four year old son had been giving him spoonfuls of Ribena and he got better. She said she thinks ‘they’ need to start compiling reports of all the things that have helped people.

I said I am sure a healthy diet helps, and Ribena does contain vitamin C, but that I refused to believe that Ribena was a coronavirus cure, it seemed pretty far-fetched to me.

I wish I had more patience but honestly, she’s all about the conspiracy theories and such like, we are all under strain with lockdown and I just couldn’t listen to her.

She’s now in a bad mood with me.

Was I being unreasonable?

Took me a long time to remember that sometimes it's more important to be kind than right. But I get where you're coming from.

The genie is out of the bottle for you though.

If my mum had said this I would laugh, but if she went on to catch coronavirus I would be buying her Ribena asap - just in case I spot a Daily Mail headline in 5 years' time on the wonders of Ribena and viruses...

Speaking of the Daily Mail -

"Police chiefs have been accused of over-reacting after launching a £200,000 investigation into two officers who shared five bottles of Vimto they found by a railway line."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1158563/Police-chiefs-spend-200-000-investigating-officers-drank-Vimto-railway.html

Could this be a lost in translation issue? Elderberry is pretty widely acknowledged as a boost to the immune system. The word for elderberry in many Slavic languages may be confusing to English (only) speakers - for example, the Polish word for elderberry - czarny bez - literally means black berry. Maybe somebody did imperfect research and now thinks that blackberries are a miracle cure?

Ribena is made from blackcurrants not blackberries which are the larger berries that grow on brambles and are really good with apple in a crumble

My mum would give me as a chronic tonsillitis sufferer, heinz chicken coup and lucozade. Whereas granny would make a paste of hot mustard on brown paper and slap that on your chest for everything.

well done for this thread OP. So much to comment on ...

Ceddie (Said-he) is indeed a short form of Cedric aka Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Any drinks help illness. Er, poss not alcohol though my grandma thought hot milk, brandy and nutmeg did the trick for preschoolers. The zonked out sleep might have helped and she got a quiet night. Some drinks help more than most and give you the sugar/salt balance you might need esp if suffering from diarrhoea.

Famous Jewish joke has a grandma at a funeral of her son, continually saying "give him some chicken soup." When the rabbi reminds her her child is dead, so it can't do any good, she retorts "but it can't do any harm."

And here is some BBC culinary advice on the advantages of chicken soup
www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/will-chicken-soup-really-cure-your-cold

That's hilarious.

For me the ribena isn't the problem it's the fact she's in a bad mood with you because you don't necessarily agree with her.

Well - since the WHO recommends keep hydrated, it would help for that

I checked the label and it has that sweetener which is well known for causing stomach upsets.

I blame that interfering bastard Jamie Oliver.

I like sugar. It may make you fat, rot your teeth and give you diabetes, but it does so in a totally natural, organic fashion.

Sweeteners are just chemicals. They muck you up is all sorts of unnatural, chemical ways (possibly organic chemistry, but they're still crap).

Sweeteners are just chemicals.

Everything is 'just chemicals'. (Well, except subatomic particles if we're being pedantic.)

this thread reminds me of being v unwell coming out of a gen anaesthetic in hospital, with throbbing migrainey type headache, a few years ago now. Staff in the recovery room decided full sugar lucozade would make me feel better/come round from anaesthetic properly.
I have never tasted anything so disgusting - neat sugar with added sweetener I think.
It made me throw up, despite not eating for about twenty hours, which I don't think was the desired effect.

Everything is 'just chemicals'

You know fine well what I mean Errol