Foods to avoid with cold sores are key foods that contain high levels of the amino acid arginine and low quantities of lysine. Take a look now at what these foods are and how to easily cancel them out.

You probably have heard of arginine and lysine. These are two amino acids that are present in most foods. Arginine and lysine have a big impact on the duration and frequency of cold sores.

Arginine and lysine work in the following way.

Cold sore outbreaks are caused by the reproduction of the herpes simplex virus type 1 or type 2. This very tiny virus enters a nerve cell on your lip (or nose) and forces that cell to create virus copies. The cell, when full, is destroyed to release the new virus. This creates the visible cold sore.

Arginine is a protein fraction that is essential in the production of new herpes virus. Your nerve cells have a storage area within the cell specifically for arginine.

Lysine and arginine compete for the same storage space. The cell cannot create new virus using lysine.

If you have a diet rich in lysine, your cells will discard some arginine to store more lysine. The herpes virus, looking to clone itself, will avoid the cells that cannot support the cloning process.

Whenever your cells have a higher lysine than arginine content, it discourages creation of new virus. This often sends the herpes virus back into a latent state. You will not get a cold sore if the cells cannot create virus.

Foods to avoid with cold sores. These are foods with higher levels of arginine.

---- Chocolate (ouch)

---- Nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts

---- Flax, sesame and most other seeds

---- Shell type seafood such as oysters and crab

---- Grains such as wheat and oats

---- Oranges, grapes and other fruits and berries

---- Most vegetables are neutral but avoid rutabagas, winter squash and pumpkins, broccoli, carrots and corn

Avoiding certain foods can be hard. Some foods above are very important for your health needs. They are considered nutrient dense essential foods. Quite likely you could go a week or so without them during the cold sore event without harm.

Keep your immune system strong by not avoiding these foods for more than a couple weeks. This avoidance program works as a treatment for a current cold sore. It is not healthy for a prevention program. If your immune system weakens, you could end up with more, not less, outbreaks.

A better solution would be to increase your lysine intake during a cold sore event. This often stops a cold sore fast. This is also a very good way to prevent future cold sores.

Here are some high lysine foods that are good any time you have a cold sore. They are especially good for balancing out some of the foods to avoid with cold sores.

Fish (flounder is super-rich in lysine), chicken, beef, eggs, apples, papaya, beets, and all dairy products. Cheeses and yogurt are very rich in lysine. These will provide a preferred lysine to arginine ratio of 2 to 1.

OK - I know keeping to a special diet is not fun. Most people, like myself, drop it quickly. Truth is, I have not followed these diet restrictions very well at all. I love chocolate too much!

For a large number of people, an easy and powerful alternative to this restricted diet is to take lysine as a supplement. Lysine is available anywhere you find vitamins. It is normally found in 500 mg. capsules. Taking four to eight capsules daily during a cold sore and one to two capsules daily between cold sores is common.

Is large dose lysine safe?

Lysine is a common protein in most foods and is perfectly safe. A six-ounce serving of flounder, mentioned previously, will give you about 5000 mg. (5 grams) of body-ready lysine. The capsule form of lysine is not as absorbable but is much easier for many people.

That's right - you do not have to give up chocolate. Increasing your lysine intake with high-lysine foods or supplements will often cancel out the effects of the arginine foods to avoid with cold sores.