If you like it hot, really hot, you could be on your way to treating the symptoms of a winter cold. Horseradish goes right to the source of that stuffed up, achy feeling by zapping accumulated mucus in the nose and sinuses.

That brain-sizzling sensation you get from eating a significant hunk of wasabi (a Japanese form of horseradish) may be tough to handle when it’s unexpected, but voluntarily consuming horseradish when you’re ill can burn right through the fog of a cold or sinus infection.

Horseradish is technically a vegetable, but it’s most often used as a condiment. You can add it to scrambled eggs, tuna salad, or use it to top other vegetables (it’s also fat free). Hardcore horseradish heads like to consume as much of the pure root as possible. Horseradish can’t be juiced, but it can be shredded and pounded and mixed with a bit of lemon juice for a shot that will leave you crying and sweating — signs that your cold is on its way out.

For all things horseradish check out the International Horseradish Festival in Collinsville, Illinois.

[via Horseradish Information Council and Dr. Andrew Weil]

(Image: Wegmans.com)