Chicken soup has the effect of treating colds and flu, and its umami taste can stimulate appetite and nutrient absorption. Ingredients in chicken soup, especially those in homemade chicken soup, can help reduce inflammation and respiratory symptoms, providing more than just comfort. Chicken soup is a traditional remedy for colds and flu and has its roots in ancient medical practices. Does it really help with illness? Nutrition experts explain the reasoning behind this beloved comfort food.
Preparing a bowl of chicken soup for a sick loved one has been a common practice around the world for centuries. Today, nearly every generation in every culture swears by the benefits of chicken soup. In the United States, this dish is usually served with noodles, but different cultures have their own way of preparing this soothing remedy.
The idea that chicken soup is a panacea goes back centuries, and as a remedy it can be traced back to 60 AD to Pedanius Dioscorides, a military physician under the Roman Emperor Nero, whose five-volume medical encyclopedia has been consulted by early medical scientists for more than a thousand years. However, the origins of chicken soup can be traced back thousands of years to ancient China. A bowl of chicken soup usually contains protein, vegetables, and broth.
So with cold and flu season upon us, it's worth asking: Is there any scientific evidence that chicken soup can help? Or is chicken soup just a placebo, providing psychological benefits when we're sick without any actual therapeutic effect?
As a registered dietitian and nutrition professor, I know the magic of chicken soup: the warmth of the broth, the rich flavor of the chicken, vegetables, and noodles. What gives chicken soup its unique taste is "umami" - the fifth taste sensation alongside sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Chicken soup is often described as "meaty".
Improve appetite and promote digestion
All of this makes sense because amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and the amino acid glutamate is found in foods that have an umami flavor. Not all umami foods are meat or poultry, though; umami can also be found in cheese, mushrooms, miso, and soy sauce.
Research shows that taste is crucial to the healing properties of chicken soup. When I see patients with upper respiratory illnesses, I find that many of them are suddenly eating less, or not eating at all. This is because acute illness triggers an inflammatory response that reduces appetite. Not wanting to eat means you're unlikely to get the nutrients you need, which isn't optimal for immune health and recovery from illness.
But there is evidence that the umami flavor in chicken soup may help stimulate your appetite. Participants in one study said they felt hungrier after their first taste of soup in which researchers added umami flavor.
Other research suggests that umami may also improve the digestion of nutrients. Once our brains sense umami through taste receptors on our tongues, our bodies prime our digestive tracts to make proteins more easily absorbed.
This can relieve gastrointestinal symptoms, which many people experience when the weather is bad. While most people don't associate upper respiratory tract infections with gastrointestinal symptoms, studies in children have found that influenza viruses increase symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
May reduce inflammation and nasal congestion
Inflammation is part of the body's natural response to injury or disease; it occurs when white blood cells migrate to inflamed tissue to help heal it. When this inflammatory process occurs in the upper respiratory tract, it causes common cold and flu symptoms such as congestion or runny nose, sneezing, coughing, and thickened mucus.
Conversely, reducing the activity of white blood cells in the nasal cavity can reduce inflammation. Interestingly, research shows that chicken soup can actually lower the number of white blood cells traveling to inflamed tissue. Chicken soup does this by directly inhibiting the ability of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, to travel to inflamed tissue.
To truly understand the soothing and healing properties of chicken soup, you have to consider its ingredients. Not all chicken soups are packed with disease-healing nutrients. For example, ultra-processed canned chicken soup, whether with or without noodles, lacks the antioxidants found in homemade chicken soup. Most canned chicken soups have few hearty vegetables.
The core nutrients in homemade chicken soup are what differentiate these soups from canned chicken soup. Chicken provides the body with a complete source of protein that fights infections. Vegetables provide a variety of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. When cooked the American way, noodles provide a source of easily digestible carbohydrates for the body to refuel and restore.
Even warm chicken soup can help. Drinking the chicken soup liquid and inhaling the chicken soup steam can increase the temperature of the nasal cavity and respiratory tract, thereby clearing the thick mucus that often accompanies respiratory diseases. Research shows that chicken soup can loosen mucus more effectively than simply drinking hot water.
Herbs and spices sometimes used in chicken soup, such as pepper and garlic, can also loosen mucus. Chicken broth contains water and electrolytes to help rehydrate you.
So, to maximize the health benefits of chicken broth, I recommend homemade chicken broth with ingredients like carrots, celery, fresh garlic, herbs, and spices. But if you want a more convenient option, check the ingredient and nutrition facts labels and choose soups with a variety of vegetables instead of ultra-processed soups that are low in nutrients.
In conclusion, the latest science shows that while chicken soup doesn't completely cure colds and flu, it does help with recovery.
It seems grandma was right again.
Author: Colby Teeman, assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Dayton.