Here's a novel idea for flu prevention: minimize sugar!

Reducing glucose metabolism dials down influenza viral infection in laboratory cell cultures, providing an entirely new approach for combating seasonal flu, according to new research in the journal Virology.

While annual flu shots are based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's predictions of the viruses that will be in widest circulation each flu season, the new approach targets one metabolic requirement of all influenza viruses: glucose.

Reducing viruses' glucose supply weakens the microbes' ability to infect host cells. To infect cells, the influenza virus is dependent upon the actions of the cell's own proteins, and so another strategy for slowing viral infection would be to target essential viral needs, for example, their dependence on cellular glucose.

When researchers boosted glucose concentrations in the laboratory cell cultures, influenza infection rate concomitantly increased. Treating the viral cells with a chemical that inhibits glucose metabolism significantly decreased viral replication in the lab cultures.

Steve: Influenza viral infection of cells could be increased by giving cells more glucose than normal. Surprised? We're not. The ease with which the researchers could dial viral infection down by controlling glucose levels just shows the need to dramatically reduce our sugar consumption, especially during flu season. However, especially around the holidays, most of us eat more sugar than at any other time of the year!