With Thanksgiving just past and friends and relatives on their way back to their homes, a not-so-friendly visitor has arrived at our collective doorsteps. His name? Flu season…and his kid, flu symptoms.

Similar to how we confuse rarely seen cousins with other spasmodic relatives visiting around the holidays, flu symptoms are often confused with colds. As a result, it’s often difficult to tell which is which without a doctor’s visit. But one can avoid cold and flu season entirely simply by doing something you likely won’t want to do if you’ re restricting calories to lose a few vanity pounds: eat (unfortunately, the same can’t be said for those relatives’ visits).

We all know the old cliché that one ought to “feed a cold, starve a fever.” But if researchers’ recent evidence is accurate, starving a fever may be the worst thing one can do. More specifically, it may be the worst thing to do in the four months traditionally known as flu season (flu season in the U.S. typically stretches between the Thanksgiving and Easter holidays)

Research conducted by Michigan State University’s Elizabeth Gardner, a professor of nutritional immunology, involved rats exposed to a strain of flu, half of the rats on a calorie-restricted diet, the other receiving their regular feeding fixes.

Though both groups of rats contracted the flu upon exposure, Gardner and her colleagues couldn’t help but notice how the well-fed rats recuperated at a much more rapid pace than those rats on a calorie-reduced diet.

Now, on the surface, the results appear obvious – a diminished amount of vitamins and minerals are sure to make someone – or in this case, some thing – more immune to disease. But the researchers supplemented both groups of rats with the same number of vitamins and minerals. The only real difference between the groupings was the physical act of eating.

As has been documented here and by others, including Gardner in her study, calorie-restriction generally carries a host of benefits, not the least of which is being able to shed weight. Other benefits of calorie-restriction include a diminished risk for acquiring various types of cancers, like pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer (according to studies performed by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin). But as Gardner says, in order for the body’s antibodies to work their magic, the body needs a little extra fuel to fuel those flu-fighting abilities.

A flu shot is not a “get out of jail free” card. Remember, flu shots only protect you from some strains, and because there are new strains of influenza that crop up each and every year, it’s impossible to know just how many there are. And if you think an antibiotic will do the trick, think again. Influenza is a virus, not a bacterium (even though many doctors give them out like candy, knowing full well they won’t do anything).

With treatment, symptoms associated with the flu clear up in a couple of weeks, but as anyone will tell you, even two weeks with the flu can seem like an eternity. In flu season, the best way to avoid the flu is by upping the calorie intake a bit and complementing that uptick in calories with a few extra steps on the treadmill or an extra curl on the preacher bar (don’t forget to wash those hands extra thoroughly).

What kinds of foods? Pretty much the same ones one would eat to ward off a cold: peppers and citrus fruits (high in vitamin C), using an extra clove of garlic in stir fries (garlic contains chemicals that act as decongestants and is high in several antioxidants), and drinking plenty of fluids (again, drinks high in antioxidants like green tea, water or 100% pure pomegranate juice).