'The people should avoid cold food, cold drinks, fruit juices during these seasons. They should use tulsi, ginger and black pepper etc. These can be adopted by normal healthy persons as well as those who have mild cold, cough, body pain etc,' one of the Ayurveda experts said.

'The use of these commonly available, centuries-old and time-tested grandmother's recipes would keep flu and other respiratory infections away as they build body's natural resistance against such ailments,' the expert added.