Does chicken soup help with a cold? This is what science says

Perhaps your grandmother or mother served it to you during flu season: chicken soup. For centuries, a cup of chicken soup has proven to be the remedy for ailments or a cold. But does it really work? This is what science says about the healing effect of such a soup.

Is chicken soup really that healthy? Scientific magazine Quest went looking for answers and looked at why we swear by a bowl of chicken soup when we have the flu or a cold. Did you already know these ten natural tips against a cold?

Does chicken soup help with a cold?

Israeli researchers already examined the healing power of chicken soup in 1999. They concluded that chicken soup did indeed help. Incidentally, it turns out that it is not necessarily just chicken soup. Because the hot vapor of soup opens the airways. Which makes breathing easier when you have a cold. That means according to Quest also that a bowl of hot water or tomato soup can help just as much against a stuffy nose.

But there are some extra benefits to the chicken soup. Scientists at the Nebraska Medical Center (United States) discovered more healing functions of chicken soup in 2000. A traditional chicken soup also helps to inhibit certain immune cells, so-called neutrophils. huh? But you don’t want that when you’re sick, do you? Braking the defenses? Apparently it helps with a cold.

Science about healing effect

According to Quest we start sniffling because of a violent reaction of our immune system. “The anti-inflammatory effect of chicken soup could alleviate such complaints, although the researchers did not check whether this is actually the case.”

However, according to the scientific magazine, we should not fully focus on chicken soup. “The soup does not tackle the core of the problem: a virus infection. In any case, you have to take it easy, but that may be more pleasant with chicken from a bowl.”

Body fight virus itself

So grandma’s chicken soup might get you through a flu in a slightly more comfortable way. A soup relieves things, especially with a cold. But it has no curative effect. For that, your body really has to fight the virus itself.

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