English
French
German
My Nona was right after all! Chicken soup is good for the cold, not just the soul.
I always believed in this one, and turns out it’s true!
Some of us doctors believed that soup has a psychosomatic benefit, that it’s just comfort food. Others think the steaming hot soup clears congestion and provides the body with necessary hydration to flush out viral bugs. But it’s now proven that isn’t all it!
In a widely cited study, published in the medical journalChest in 2000, involved laboratory tests to determine why chicken soup might help colds, beginning with his wife’s homemade recipe, handed down by her Lithuanian grandmother.
Researchers used volunteer blood samples to show that the soup inhibited the movement of white blood cells that defends against infection. By inhibiting the migration of these very cells in the body, chicken soup essentially helps reduce upper respiratory cold symptoms.
The ingredients in the soup studied?
No one ingredient was tested separately, so the theory remains that it may be the combination of vegetables and chicken that work together. The tested soup contained chicken, onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, parsley, salt and pepper.
SO With all the safety concerns of over the counter medication in children, it may be best to hold off on cold medicine and make a batch of chicken soup.
By the way, store bought soup passes the test too! We don’t all have the time to make our Nona’s soup.
