Can drinking chicken soup cure a cold? These benefits have been proven...

After the beginning of winter, the weather is getting colder

Are you guys the same as Xiao Ke?

I like to drink some hot soup before eating to "warm my stomach"

Chicken soup is a common dish on the table

Loved by people

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There have been many sayings circulating on the Internet, such as "drinking soup can keep out the cold" and "drinking soup can replenish the nutrients needed by the body"...

Recently, there have been rumors that drinking chicken soup can cure colds, which has sparked heated discussions among netizens. So can drinking chicken soup really relieve the symptoms of a cold?

Today we will explore together:

Can drinking chicken soup really "cure" a cold?

What are the benefits of drinking chicken soup to your health?

Practical tips to make chicken soup taste better

01 Drink chicken soup to cure a cold?

An article published in Life Times mentioned that although chicken soup cannot "cure" the cold, it does have a certain effect in relieving cold symptoms.

Colby Tieman, a professor of nutrition at the University of Dayton, said the "healing" effect of chicken soup is supported by a number of studies.

Image source: Life Times

1. Helps relieve nasal congestion

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the United States conducted a comparative test on drinking chicken soup, hot water and cold water. The results of the patients' nasal mucus flow rate and nasal airflow resistance tests showed:

Drinking cold water can thicken nasal mucus to a certain extent, making it more likely to clog the respiratory tract.

Drinking hot chicken soup and hot water can help relieve nasal congestion and runny nose symptoms to a certain extent, but drinking chicken soup is more effective and can help patients breathe more smoothly.

2. Helps relieve cough

A study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center found that when the human body is attacked by the cold virus, the number of neutrophils will increase to varying degrees, which can stimulate mucus secretion and cause symptoms such as coughing and runny nose.

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Chicken soup contains many ingredients that can inhibit neutrophil activity, thereby helping to relieve cold symptoms.

The University of California, USA, has found that the beneficial ingredients in chicken soup can help eliminate mucus in the patient's lungs to a certain extent, inhibit the growth of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and thus play a role in expectoration and relieving cough.

Li Hongmei, chief physician of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, said in an interview with Life Times: "Colds are divided into two types: wind-cold and wind-heat, and chicken soup is not suitable for all of them."

The symptoms of a cold usually include chills, clear runny nose, etc. Drinking chicken soup can have a better relieving effect.

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The main symptoms of wind-heat cold are sore throat and yellow phlegm. Drinking hot chicken soup may have the opposite effect and aggravate the condition.

It is recommended that such patients drink more boiled water. If they feel that water has no taste, they can add some mint, chrysanthemum or honeysuckle to make tea according to their own situation.

In addition, chicken soup has a high fat content, so people with "three highs" and patients with cholecystitis, gallstones, gout, and renal insufficiency should drink less to avoid aggravating their condition.

02 Benefits of drinking chicken soup

The "healing" effect of chicken soup is not only in taste, it also has many benefits to the body.

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1. Helps protect cardiovascular system

Chicken can protect the cardiovascular system to a certain extent.

Because it contains a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, it can reduce the cholesterol content in the human body to a certain extent, thereby effectively protecting the cardiovascular system and preventing the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.

2. Improve blood circulation in the nasopharynx

Drinking a bowl of hot soup can also help improve blood circulation in the nasopharynx, relieve nasal congestion, relieve sore throat, and to a certain extent help the body replenish a large amount of water, thereby speeding up recovery from a cold.

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3. Helps improve immunity

In the process of cooking chicken soup, soluble nitrogen-containing substances in the chicken, such as amino acids, small peptides, creatine, carnitine, inositol, etc., as well as potassium and various B vitamins will be integrated into the soup, which is beneficial to improve the body's immunity to a certain extent.

4. Supplement the nutrients needed by the human body

Chicken contains certain trace elements such as phosphorus and iron, and the content of various vitamins is also very high.

After being made into chicken soup, it is easier to absorb and can supplement the nutrients needed by the human body, thereby playing a role in strengthening the body.

5. Helps improve appetite

People usually have a poor appetite when they have a cold. Chicken soup has a strong flavor and helps stimulate the secretion of gastric juice, increase the patient's appetite, and give the body more energy to "defeat" the virus.

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Of course, drinking chicken soup also has a certain "placebo" effect. After drinking the hot soup, people with a cold will feel much more comfortable, their mood will improve to a certain extent, and their immunity will naturally be enhanced.

03 How to make chicken soup

When making chicken soup, many people choose to put it directly into the pot, and the resulting soup often has a slightly fishy smell.

Some people will blanch the chicken before making chicken soup, because there is a lot of blood and "dirt" in the chicken, and the chicken will become clean after blanching.

However, if the blanching process is not well controlled, not only will the nutrients in the meat be lost, but the texture of the chicken will also become dry. Xiao Ke has sorted out several practical tips for making chicken soup to share with you:

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1. Use rice water to remove fishy smell

Soaking and washing the chicken in rice water can, on the one hand, remove the strange and fishy smell on the chicken skin, and on the other hand, make the chicken more tender to a certain extent.

2. Wash the chicken with salt water

After soaking the chicken in rice water for 10-20 minutes, pour an appropriate amount of cold water into a basin, add salt and stir evenly.

Use salt water to clean the prepared chicken. The density of salt water is greater than that of blood, so the blood will automatically run out.

3. Soak the chicken in cold water

Put the chicken in cold water, add an appropriate amount of cooking wine, stir properly, and let the chicken soak in the cold water with cooking wine for about 30 minutes.

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Warm tip: Soaking chicken in cold water and cooking wine can remove the fishy smell to a certain extent, making the chicken soup more fragrant.

After washing the chicken, cut it into pieces and soak it in onion, ginger, salt, white vinegar and water for a while. After the blood inside is drained, the chicken will be more tender and the soup will be more fragrant.