The Natural Connection

The average American patient is perhaps unaware of the intense debate that has been waged in the medical literature during the past twenty-five years over the purported health benefits of chicken soup. Although chicken soup, in various forms, has been recommended by grandmothers for over a thousand years as a remedy for a variety of ailments, it’s usefulness during the Age of Pharmaceuticals has been questioned by the scientific community and placed under intense scrutiny. A pot of soup simmering on the stove has gradually given way to a line of cherry-flavored syrups and costly decongestants in the medicine cabinet as a “cure” for respiratory illnesses. 

Actually, the Jewish physician and philosopher Moses Maimonides in 1200 AD, recognized the value of chicken soup, and praised its virtues for “rectifying corrupted humors”, suggesting it was good for everything. Perhaps because Maimonides was also recognized in his day as an expert on poisons, as well as soup, his proclamations have been largely ignored by future generations of physicians. But Grandmothers world-wide have quietly continued to carry the chicken soup torch, firm in their belief that it can heal anything, waiting for the day that science would catch up to conventional wisdom. 

Chicken soup critics in the past have dismissed the curative powers of the soup by saying that it was the hot steam that opened your nose up and made you feel better. Or that it was just the cuddly feeling that you got when your mother served it to you that made you feel better. Truly grinch-like persons have reported that chicken soup could possibly even KILL you, citing evidence of deaths from anaphylactic reactions, chocking, or electrolyte imbalance from eating salty soup. Still, the grandmothers have stood firm. 

With the winter cold and flu season hurtling fast upon us, coupled with the current delay in influenza vaccine, the research findings of an intrepid group of scientists from the University of Nebraska in Omaha come none too soon. Published in the prestigious journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, (Chest October 2000), their carefully conducted study supports a scientific basis for the healing power of chicken soup. 

Now this group of doctors from Nebraska didn’t cook up just any pot of chicken soup. They carefully prepared under laboratory conditions a family recipe called “Grandma’s Soup” a rich concoction that has been handed down since the Depression, which includes not only chicken, but also a host of vegetables, including celery, carrots, onions, parsnips, turnips, and of all things, a sweet potato. This soup requires the removal of the chicken after cooking, but adds the vegetables pureed back into the soup, (admittedly a little weird, but it’s Nebraska). They also prepared the soup with and without matzoh balls made from a box of Manischewitz matzoh meal. Lastly, they compared Grandma’s Soup to some thirteen brands of canned store-bought soups. 

The purpose of their study was to see if chicken soup made according to a traditional recipe could inhibit the inflammation process that accompanies respiratory illnesses such as colds and flu. If inflammation is inhibited, presumably congestion of the airways will decrease, fever will decrease, and the patient’s symptoms would decrease. 

In order to determine if it was actually the soup (as opposed to the steam or other factors, such as your mother) that was responsible for the reduction in inflammation, the scientific soup study was done with white blood cells in a laboratory. White cells, of course, have no nose, and could care less who makes their soup. A positive effect on white blood cells would suggest that the soup, not the steam, was the critical factor. 

The results of the study reported in October indicate that Grandma’s Soup exhibited properties that could result in a reduction of an inflammatory response. The results of the commercial soups tested were variable. Many, but not all, also showed positive results. Unfortunately, the authors did not list brand names of the most successful soups, probably wishing to corner the market and buy all of them up before the flu season hits this year. 

So, the results are in. No recount needed, it would appear. The grandmothers win. Or maybe we should call it a tie. Because whenever medical science can “discover” that an ancient wisdom has benefit even in our modern times, everybody wins. 

If you would like a copy of the recipe published in Chest for Grandma’s Soup, or if you have your own family soup recipe that you would like see subjected to scientific scrutiny, please write to The Natural Connection, c/o Dr. Pauline Bellecci, PO BOX 777, Waycross, GA, or click here to e-mail us.

©2000-2003 Pauline M. Bellecci, MD