Chicken Soup: Nature's Best Cold and Flu Remedy?

July 7, 2006

By Chet Day

When I was growing up in the '50s, my grandmother always

said chicken soup was good for what ails you.

Interestingly enough, scientific evidence today supports

what dear old granny used to say.

Several medical experts have proven that old-fashioned

chicken has healing properties.

Although a 12th century physician named Moses Maimonides

first prescribed chicken soup as a cold and asthma remedy,

its therapeutic properties have been studied by a host of medical experts in recent decades. Findings vary.

Some say the steam is the real benefit. Sipping the hot

soup and breathing in the steam helps clear up congestion.

Irwin Ziment, M.D., pulmonary specialist and professor at

the UCLA School for Medicine, says chicken soup contains drug-like agents similar to those in modern cold medicines. For example, an amino acid released from chicken during cooking chemically resembles the drug acetylcysteine, prescribed for bronchitis and other respiratory problems.

Spices that are often added to chicken soup, such as garlic

and pepper (all ancient treatments for respiratory

diseases), work the same way as modern cough medicines, thinning mucus and making breathing easier.

Another theory, put forth by Stephen Rennard, M.D., chief

of pulmonary medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, is that chicken soup acts as an anti- inflammatory. The soup, he says, keeps a check on inflammatory white blood cells (neutrophils). Cold symptoms, such as coughs and congestion, are often caused by inflammation produced when neutrophils migrate to the bronchial tubes and accumulate there.

In his lab, Rennard tested chicken soup made from the

recipe of his wife's Lithuanian grandmother. He

demonstrated that neutrophils showed less tendency to congregate - but were no less able to fight germs - after he added samples of the soup to the neutrophils. Diluted 200 times, the soup still showed that effect.

Rennard based his chicken soup research on a family recipe, which he referred to in his article as "Grandma's soup."

Dr. Stephen Rennard's Recipe for Grandma's Soup

1 5-6 lb stewing hen or baking chicken

1 package of chicken wings

3 large onions

1 large sweet potato

3 parsnips

2 turnips

11 to 12 large carrots

5 to 6 celery stems

1 bunch of parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Clean the chicken, put it in a large pot, and cover it with cold water. Bring the water to a boil. Add the chicken wings, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips and carrots. Boil about 1.5 hours. Remove fat from the surface as it accumulates. Add the parsley and celery.

Cook the mixture about 45 minutes longer. Remove the

chicken. The chicken is not used further for the soup. (The meat makes excellent chicken parmesan.) Put the vegetables in a food processor until they are chopped fine or pass through the strainer. Both were performed in the present study. Salt and pepper to taste. (Note: this soup freezes

well.)

Soups Used in Dr. Rennard's Study

When Rennard set out to determine whether there was any

truth to the tales that chicken soup has medicinal

qualities, he used an old family recipe - and found

encouraging results. But he also found that some store

bought soups fared even better.

It must be stressed that Rennard did only the one study. He concluded that to draw any definite scientific conclusions, further study would be needed. However, that's unlikely to happen because there's no money to be made with chicken soup.

Here's the list of brand name soups Rennard used - in order

of how effective they were in slowing the progress of colds

and flu.

Knorr's Chicken Flavor Chicken Noodle

Campbell's Home Cookin' Chicken Vegetable

Campbell's Healthy Request Chicken Noodle

Lipton Cup-O-Soup, Chicken Noodle

Progresso Chicken Noodle

Grandma's Soup

Health Valley Natural Chicken Broth

Healthy Choice Thick and Heart Country Vegetable

Progresso Hearty Vegetable and Pasta

Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable

Campbell's Vegetable Soup with Beef Stock

Health Valley Fat Free Garden Noodle

Cup O' Noodles, Oriental Nissin

Campbell's Ramen Noodles, Chicken Flavor

If the above isn't enough, here's a healthy chicken soup

recipe from my popular special report, "How to Beat Colds

and Flu with 37 Natural Remedies" at

http://natural-cold-flu-relief.com

Sickbed Chicken Soup

1 large chicken

1 white turnip, peeled and cut into medium chunks

1 yellow onion, cut into chunks

2 parsnips, peeled and cut into slices

3 carrots, peeled and cut into slices

4 stalks of celery, cleaned and cut into strips/pieces

5 healthy pieces of fresh dill or at least the flower part

of one stalk

Put everything into the pot with 3-4 quarts of water.

Simmer until done. Debone the chicken, put into the refrigerator, and skim off the fat.

In closing, you can get a copy of my special report on

natural remedies for colds and flu at

http://natural-cold-flu-relief.com

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