Why is 7up good for you when you're sick??

If I remember correctly from when I was a kid, wasn't it supposed to be flat 7Up? I never understood either

bdoo wrote: »

Red lemonade warmed in a saucepan did have certain medicinal properties also.

First I've heard of that but next time I'm poorly I'll be on it

Only ever heard about that in Ireland, tbh.
When I was sick as a kid, my granddad would give me warm, flat Coca Cola. The idea was that whatever it was you ate that is upsetting your stomache, the coke will help to digest faster.
Had to be warm and flat, though, because cold and fizzy drinks are bad for your tummy, according to granddad.

My nanny still swears by hot 7up with a load of sugar mixed in. Whenever I ask how is it supposed to work, or how is it better than medicine she just tells me to shut up and drink it

Ah yes flat 7up for a dodgy tummy and lucozade for everything else. I fecking hate 7up makes me feel ill so I always refused to drink it, anything lemon makes me feel ill for some reason.

When we were younger my brother got very sick over in France. He was in hospital for a few days and they asked him did he like Coke, Sprite, Fanta, etc. He said Coke and they gave him flat Coke, as much as he wanted (I think they had hacked their machine not to carbonate it.)

My parents asked the doctor why, and they said that it was because people like Coke, Fanta, 7up, etc. and so they'd be willing to drink it. It has the added benefit of being full of sugar, which sick people will be low on, but the base of it was that getting a sick person to drink anything is good for them to avoid dehydration. If someone preferred tea, they'd give them tea, or water with glucose dissolved in it, but really it's just to get people to keep drinking, so they don't end up on a drip. Or to supplant a drip if they do have one.

The only thing I know that is actually good for the stomach, is coffee. A small amount, like a single cup or an espresso helps with digestion, and can cut through bloatedness. And that's the root of places offering a coffee after dinner. But in hospitals, the root of the 7up thing is simply to get people to keep drinking.

We always heated the 7up in the microwave and drank it out of the glass mugs usually used for hot chocolate or Irish coffees. Honestly don't know why, it was just what we were always given when we were sick as kids. Everyone said it was good for you when you were sick, it's probably some sort of placebo effect :P

My auntie brought me a bottle of Lucozade when I had chickenpox and claimed that Lucozade was proven to work on chickenpox (no idea what that was about !)

They should make it prescription only.

Flat 7up was my mums remedy when we were sick - did seem to work but as a lot of people said already, it all about getting fluid and sugar into the system.

But for a cold or flu, warm red lemonade with a spoon of honey. Tasted way too sweet but it worked. Sweated buckets in bed after, but the cold would clear up.......aren't mammys geniuses

When I was a kid, Letterkenny hospital wouldn't allow Lucozade to be given to the patients.......or maybe that was only in the paediatric ward - and I really loved Lucozade too For a hangover, it's still the only remedy.....

Martyn1989 wrote: »

Afaik in Cokes early days it was sold as a digestive aid, seeing as it was made from herbs and stuff like that. Your grandad probably still had that image of it? Still, the caffeine and sugar would have given you energy which is what a sick person needs.

I went to the chemist for my gf when she was sick and he had these sachets of powdered flavoured drinks that he said would help. Apperently they just did the same thing as 7up as they replaced electrolytes lost from throwing up etc.

To be honest, it's more likely he remembered a chemistry experiment most schools in Germany would do : You place a bit of meat into a petri dish with coke, and it will disolve overnight.
So my granddad figured if it can disolve things this easily, must be good for getting rid of anything bad you may have eaten

Rasheed wrote: »

Dioralyte is rotten surely.

When i was sick as a child, i'd be given dioralyte, and couldn't get enough of it, i'd get up in the middle of the night, and start drinking it out of the fridge