What’s better than a hot chicken soup in the wintertime when we are down with the flu? New studies assess its ability to reduce the inflammatory response associated with colds and flu.

According to some studies, chicken soup is not only a simple old wives’ tale, but has a real curative power, thanks to a series of substances with beneficial medicinal activity, including anti-inflammatory mechanism that could alleviate the flu symptoms and respiratory tract infections.

In a study published in CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, researchers from the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Section of the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, assessed the ability of chicken soup to reduce the inflammatory response associated with colds and flu, thus providing some relief from symptoms. The soup, which they called “Grandma’s soup”, did not only include chicken, but also onions, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, celery stems and parsley, with the addition of salt and pepper.

From the many tests that have been conducted, it has emerged that the components with anti-inflammatory activity were not typical of the vegetables present in the soup, but of the chicken. As specified by Dr. Stephen Rennard, who led the study: “Anti-inflammatory activity was also observed with several other recipes that lack the particles from vegetables. “Thus, while the identity of the biologically active materials is unknown, it seems likely they are water-soluble or extractable. Pureed carrots or other vegetables are not recommended as a remedy while chicken soup is.”

According to Dr. Rennard, this study may have clinical relevance, confirming what experience has always taught us: at the first symptoms of cold and flu, a steaming chicken soup actually helps to get better. This may be due to the numerous nutrients involved in increasing immune defenses, which dissolve in water while cooking chicken in broth, including essential amino acids, water-soluble B vitamins, minerals such as iron, selenium, zinc, calcium, magnesium, potassium, which not only from meat, but also from bones, skin and cartilage pass to the broth, in addition to numerous other elements that feed the microbiota, increasing the defensive power of the intestinal bacterial microflora and healing from infectious diseases.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the idea of ​​hot soup as a home remedy for colds and flu has existed for at least the 12th century, helping to open up congested nasal sinuses, eliminating mucus and helping to prevent dehydration that can arise during a disease, thanks to water and the numerous highly bioavailable mineral salts, important for fighting infections.

For example, while cooking chicken also dissolves its gelatin in water, its fat rich in antioxidant nutraceutical substances, fat-soluble vitamins, chondroitin, glucosamine and hyaluronic acid, functional substances of the collagen found in the cartilages and proven useful for reconstructing the damaged cartilages of the elderly, used in clinical practice to prevent and treat osteoarthritis.

In short, a true miracle not to be underestimated and to be included in our weekly menu in the wintertime, as an additional tool to prevent or treat the seasonal ailments and much more.