It is not uncommon to see chicken soup being prescribed by mothers or grandmothers while we are sick. But who knows if it really helps to cure our colds and flu symptoms? Is it a real miracle or merely a myth?
Chicken noodle soup usually has the same ingredients: chicken broth, chicken, noodles, and a few vegetables like onions, celery, and carrots. When you make a hot, hearty soup with these ingredients, it has many health benefits.
Scientists have only recently started to figure out the scientific reasons why chicken noodle soup works. Virus infections in the upper respiratory tract are usually what cause colds and the flu. In these places, the body fights back by making inflammation, which makes white blood cells move there to fight the infection.
Even though white blood cells can kill bacteria, they don’t do much for viruses. Unfortunately, they do make the body make more mucus, which causes many of the symptoms of colds and flu, like stuffy noses, coughing, and sneezing.
Chicken noodle soup has a lot of carbs and protein, which give you energy and help your immune system. Minerals and vitamins, like Vitamin A and Vitamin C, are found in vegetables and broth. Chicken bones are cooked for a few hours in stock. This gives minerals like zinc, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium enough time to get into the stock. There are also antioxidants in the vegetables and broth that help fight off viruses.
The hot broth also helps keep your body hydrated and clears up stuffy noses via its scent, aroma and heat from the hearty soup. Hot chicken soup worked better than hot water at stimulating the mucociliary transport system. This system helps move things along in the upper and lower respiratory tract, which helps the body get rid of particles and infections. When chicken is added to soup, an amino acid called cysteine is made. Cysteine can help the body heal by making the mucus in the nose and lungs thinner. This works well with the other benefits of soup, such as helping to keep the body hydrated.
A few scientific studies have shown that zinc can make a cold go away faster. But you need to start taking more zinc as soon as the first symptoms show up, which is within 24 hours. Many of these studies were done with lozenges or zinc supplements, so it’s hard to say if the chicken soup has enough zinc to work.
Some scientists found a chemical called carnosine in it. Research suggests that carnosine may have an anti-inflammatory effect by stopping or slowing the movement of white blood cells to the upper respiratory tract. This could help reduce or get rid of some of the most common cold and flu symptoms.
Besides alleviating the cold symptoms, warm chicken soup is undoubtedly a comfort food for children and even adults when they feel irritated from getting sick. Chicken also has a lot of tryptophan, which helps your body make serotonin. Serotonin can improve your mood and make you feel “comfortable,” which indirectly helps you to recover faster.
Inevitably, chicken soup is a worth trying recipe since it is not only an old home regime for colds but also a loaded bowl with many essential nutrients. Although chicken soup may not cure the flu directly, it certainly makes us feel better by relieving nasal congestion, hydrating our body and providing immunity through nutrients. However, it might vary between homemade and store-bought chicken soup. Other influencing variables include the method of preparation and the choice of ingredients. As we know, the vegetables can lose more nutrients as they are boiled longer in the soup.
Jangan rasa ragu-ragu untuk bertanya Soalan kepada doctor anda.
