We’ve all heard about the book, “Chicken Soup for the Soul” by Jack Canfield and we’ve heard that chicken soup is good for colds and the flu. But does it really work? I don’t have a grandmother and was too sick to make some myself. But it has been tested by doctors and their results were conclusive – “Scientists say they have confirmed what grandmothers have known for centuries — that chicken soup is good for colds.” (Chicken soup is medicine, U.S. scientists confirm – CNN Archives)
A batch of chicken soup which included chicken, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, parsley and matzo balls, a kind of dumpling, was tested. The researchers found that “chicken soup and many of its ingredients helped stop the movement of neutrophils — white blood cells that eat up bacteria and cellular debris and which are released in great numbers by viral infections like colds. Neutrophil activity can stimulate the release of mucous, which may be the cause of the coughs and stuffy nose caused by upper respiratory infections such as colds. ‘All the ingredients were found to be inhibitory, including the boiled extract of chicken alone'”
So maybe instead of heading for the medicine cabinet or the drugstore you should be heading to grandma’s house, or if you aren’t too sick yet, making up a batch of the family chicken soup and start feeling better right away!
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