Toast and tonsillitis

[wheo]

I have quite a bad bout of tonsillitis at the moment- on anti biotic.

The woman in the coop remarked at me buying ice cream so I explained I was unwell- she said she swears by hard food like toast and crisps when you have a throat infection as it pushes the infection out.

Was she a sadist? Or is there any truth to this?

Thanks

Not necessarily a sadist but definitely does not know what she’s talking about! Certain foods do not “push out the infection”. Eat whatever you feel is going to be comfortable, and hope you feel better soon, tonsillitis is vile.

Never heard of that! I would think soft food like ice cream, soup etc is better. Much easier to swallow with a sore throat.

Actually I’m pretty sure she’s right - I’m sure I read that when people have tonsillectomies now they’re advised to try to eat harder foods because those ‘scrape’ away any build up/coating off the throat, making less of a friendly environment for bacterial growth.

It used to be that after tonsillectomy patients were encouraged to eat things like toast and dry cereal because the abrasiveness was considered to help with the healing process. The same may have been / be believed to be the case for tonsillitis.

A sadist? That's a bit extreme 😂

I've had murders with my tonsils. I actually had a tonsillectomy in the end. The advice has always been hard food like toast as you mentioned.

NHS page here advising hard food after tonsillectomy. I think it’s probably the same for tonsillitis too.

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/tonsillectomy/#:~:text=Eating%20foods%20like%20toast%2C%20or,to%20drink%20lots%20of%20fluids.

I think she is confused.
Years ago when you had your tonsils taken out you were given ice cream in hospital as it was most comfortable thing to eat (and patients were often children)

These days you don't get ice cream....supposedly because toast and scratchy foods are better at helping your throat heal, perhaps clearing any clots or scar tissue.
Personally not sure how true that is, or whether it's more that providing ice cream takes more money/effort, tonsillectomy is rarer and often in adults or other reasons.

Either way it's about the op, not just having a sore throat.

Personally both ice cream and toast sound awful for a sore throat. I would rather have hot honey and lemon or soup.

I think it just helps scrape the guff off as it goes down and that will help in the long run.

I know when I was a child I had to successfully manage to eat a slice of toast before hospital release post removal of tonsils. Perhaps that's what she is thinking of ?

Nah, she's talking bollocks. You can't scrape infection away with sodding toast!

If you have your tonsils out, they sometimes suggest you eat toast in hospital to dislodge scabs/clots/build-up from the surgery. But that is completely different from actually having tonsillitis.

During my worst bouts of tonsillitis my throat was so swollen that I couldn't swallow solid food at all, let alone toast!

It's not the same.

The NHS advice for tonsillitis is just to drink cool liquids to soothe the throat, not to rough it up with toast. The toast/hard food thing is help the throat heal after surgery, which is a different thing from having pus-filled lumps on your tonsils.

Advising people to eat toast to scratch away tonsillitis spots from your throat is a bit like telling people to clear spots from your face by scrubbing them hard with a brush to tear them open.

Fair enough! I suspect the person who spoke to the OP was probably getting the same advice confused as I was.

I used to get severe recurring tonsillitis and eventually my DMIL virtually force fed me dry toast. I promise you. It was better than sex. Even if it that sex with Hugh Jackman. I've never loved that woman as much. It literally scrapes all the crap away. Do it!!

Yes, DH was told toast after having them removed.

But still in situ and all swollen? Ice cream, trifle and chocolate mousse all the time - and some maybe some lemsip with some honey and rum.

Toast is the best! i always have it with throat infections