Feed a cold, starve a fever

High school (ages 12+)
Thinking & Learning

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/feed-a-cold-starve-a-fever

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the adage origin era?Ancient Greece, associated with Hippocrates and humoral theory
2. What is the historical rationale for fever?Fever conceptualized as excess internal heat; fasting aimed to reduce heat generation
3. What does the saying "feed a cold, starve a fever" mean?It says that when you have a cold you should eat to give your body energy, but when you have a fever you should avoid food to keep the body cooler.
4. Why did people in ancient Greece and Rome think we should starve a fever?They believed a fever was too much heat inside the body, and eating made more heat, so they thought not eating would help.

Humoral Theory: An ancient medical doctrine proposing that health depends on the balance of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.