# Chicken Soup: Why is it medicine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2003, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065 "2003-02-01T07:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fuel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/1 "2003-02-01T07:07:30Z")
What is it about chicken soup that makes it medicine to a cold? is there some kind of chemical reaction or some sort of naturally present ingredient in it? ---
**Author:** ![Fuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fuel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/2 "2003-02-01T07:09:17Z")
the reason i ask this is that my friend just told me he remembers hearing that there actually was something in it and that it was not just an old “wives tale”. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/3 "2003-02-01T07:12:38Z")
To start off with, there is no “medicine” for a cold - you can pretty much only cover up the symptoms and give your body as much energy as you can by resting and eating healthy. I’d suspect (read, WAG) that the chicken soup aids both of these. It is easy to eat, generally healthy, and gives you a nice warm tummy and throat, making you comfortable so you can rest, as well as providing some fluids of its own. Maybe there are some additional properties that help some of the symptoms… but that’s my poke at the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/4 "2003-02-01T07:29:01Z")
It’s high in something, I’m fairly sure potassium, that helps with cold symptoms. Or so my mum says. I may be proved wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/5 "2003-02-01T08:11:49Z")
[Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971017.html) says to eat your soup. No wait, [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980206.html) seems to think it’s a waste of time. ---
**Author:** ![Monopoly\_Money](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Monopoly\_Money](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monopoly_Money)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/6 "2003-02-01T08:47:39Z")
When you hold a steaming bowl of chicken soup under your chin, you inhale the vapours from the sage and thyme, which help fight colds. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/7 "2003-02-01T13:04:32Z")
Last year, I went to my doctor with sinus trouble. He recommended steam and chicken soup. Dr. Shapiro, smiling, said, “That’s not just because I’m Jewish.;j A study in the _New England Journal of Medicine_ shows it works.” ---
**Author:** ![GrannyJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@GrannyJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrannyJoy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/8 "2003-02-06T04:58:11Z")
I also read in a Medical journal that hot chicken soup is effective. Of course there is no cure but apparently there is some enzyme released from the hot chicken. That and the combination of the salty liquid influences the consumers body to produce it’s own defenses against the cold viruses and there actually is a reduction in symptoms and longevity of the cold. At least that’s the way I remember it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/9 "2003-02-06T05:07:57Z")
When I’ve had colds in the past, I’ve found that a bowl of any soup seemed to open up the sinuses. I always had to blow my nose after the meal, but I usually felt a bit better. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/10 "2003-02-06T12:32:53Z")
My apologies for the sketchy nature of this post, but I remember listening to a science program some years ago wherein it was asserted that stock(bouillon) made with chicken and vegetable trimmings could contain beneficial components (which I _think_ may have been terpenes, but I’m not sure) from the vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/11 "2003-02-06T15:52:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monopoly Money \* > \*\*When you hold a steaming bowl of chicken soup under your chin, you inhale the vapours from the sage and thyme, which help fight colds. \*\* Call me crazy - everyone does - but I bet that less than 5% of the chicken soup consumed in the US has sage and/or thyme in it… hrh ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/12 "2003-02-06T16:32:49Z")
They’d be using it in hospitals if they could figure out a way to get the matzoh balls through the IV tubes. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/13 "2003-02-06T16:48:27Z")
That and it’s comfort food. Warm, tasty but not too strong, and soothing. Perhaps it’s the power of suggestion as well? ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-soup-why-is-it-medicine/152065/14 "2003-02-06T17:06:31Z")
From WebMD: > **[WebMD - Better information. Better health.](https://www.webmd.com?lastselectedguid=%7B5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348%7D)** > > The leading source for trustworthy and timely health and medical news and information. Providing credible health information, supportive community, and educational services by blending award-winning expertise in content, community services, expert... > [@](#): > > Healthy, nonsmoking volunteers made up the study subjects – or rather, their blood did – because the experiment was strictly done outside the body: No one ate the soup. Samples were collected, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cell important in defending the body against infections, were obtained from the volunteers’ blood. “Neutrophils are responsible for migrating to sites where the body has been invaded [by germs],” says lead author Stephen Rennard, MD. “They eat germs and kill them.” What draws them to those invaded sites are chemicals called ‘chemotactic factors.’ The whole reaction leads to inflammation – and in the case of a cold, symptoms such as coughing." > > To test the effect of the chicken soup, the researchers separated the chemotactic factors and neutrophils in a lab. After mixing the soup with the neutrophils, they checked to see whether it stopped the cells’ tendency to move toward the chemotactic factors. **If the soup worked, inflammation would not take place, and the symptoms of a cold might be avoided.** The overall conclusion: Chicken soup inhibits neutrophil movement toward chemotactic factors. In other words, soup is good for a cold. > > … > > “Grandma’s soup,” as the researchers called it, was a bit unusual in that it contained that many different vegetables. Would other chicken soups work? Thirteen supermarket-bought brands were put to the test. Five – made by Knorr, Campbell’s, Lipton, and Progresso – worked as well as Grandma’s concoction at taming neutrophil activity. That’s the purported mechanism. But … > [@](#): > > “… But, we have no idea whether the active compounds in soup are even absorbable.” And this inclusion of unsupported off-the-cuff speculations diminishes the value of the results, IMO: > [@](#): > > The authors say other things may contribute to the seemingly positive effect of chicken soup on cold sufferers. Sipping warm liquid can help clear the nose. The healing atmosphere surrounding the serving of chicken soup may exert a placebo effect. Overall conclusion? Chicken soup’s probably good for a cold. Big shockeroo.