A new study supports the folk wisdom to “feed a cold and starve a fever” — if you assume a fever is bacterial:
In the first series of experiments, the investigators infected mice with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, which commonly causes food poisoning. The mice stopped eating, and they eventually recovered. But when the mice were force fed, they died. The researchers then broke the food down by component and found fatal reactions when the mice were given glucose, but not when they were fed proteins or fats. Giving mice the chemical 2-DG, which prevents glucose metabolism, was enough to rescue even mice who were fed glucose and allowed them to survive the infection.
When the researchers did similar studies in mice with viral infections, they found the opposite effect. Mice infected with the flu virus A/WSN/33 survived when they were force fed glucose, but died when they were denied food or given 2-DG.