As Hong Kong's flu seasons looms... 10 tips to avoid catching a cold

Adults average about two to four colds a year, according to the British health information site NHS Choices. Catching a cold is a dismal feeling; all that snot makes you feel gross. If you let the infection get out of hand, leper-like, you may stay at home, unable to do much except sniffle and sneeze.

The trick is to stop that cold in its tracks by revving up your immune system and keeping the virus out of your sinuses. With the Hong Kong flu season looming, here are 10 tips on how to do just that.

Bite a hot pepper and you'll be able to vouch for the fact that it clears your sinuses fast. Thank capsaicin, the chemical that gives chillies their zing, which works as a decongestant.

Another of the pepper's perks is that it can help you sweat out a fever by raising your body temperature. Better yet, chilli peppers carry up to four times as much vitamin C as an orange. And vitamin C is said to shorten the duration of colds. So grab a bottle of Tabasco sauce, or have a curry or some guacamole laced with garlic.

Garlic keeps more than vampires away. In 1858, French scientist Louis Pasteur found that bacteria died when exposed to garlic. Modern research has shown that garlic's antibacterial effect comes from allicin, a compound found in the pungent bulb.