The Hidden Medicinal Values Of Jewish Chicken Soup

The common cold is an upper respiratory tract infection caused by many different viruses. If you were brought up in a Jewish family your mother would have cooked the chicken soup when you have a runny nose. Chicken soup is considered the Jewish penicillin.

Chicken soup helps in curing running nose by reducing the contact between the lining of the nose and the viruses. It improves the function of cilia and keeps the passageway free of mucus and other foreign bodies. It also reduces the chances of getting infected.

Study & Research

A study conducted in 2000 published in the journal of American College of Chest Physicians found that chicken soup could help reduce upper-respiratory inflammation, which leads to those annoying qualities of a cold, like a stuffy head and incessant sneezing. 

Other warm liquids can also help in clearing stuffed nose, but there seems to be something special about chicken soup that makes it uniquely effective. When Mount Sinai Medical Center researchers in Miami Beach fed chicken soup to 15 healthy participants, the hot broth was shown to be successful in loosening mucus and clearing nasal passageways compared to other hot liquids.

The biggest chicken soup breakthrough came in 2000, when Dr. Stephen Rennard, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, decided to test his wife’s grandmother’s chicken soup recipe as a cure for the common cold. Rennard’s grandmother-in-law’s recipe contained chicken, onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery, parsley, salt, and pepper. To know exactly which of these ingredients contributed to the results he conducted his tests again, both with hot water only and with a range of store-bought chicken soups. His results were consistent: chicken soup repelled the neutophils, resulting in less nasal inflammation.

Traditional Jewish Chicken Soup (Penicillin) Recipe 

Put chicken with 7 ½ cups of water, salt, and pepper. Cover and bring to the boil. Peel onion and carrots, cut in half and add to the pan with celery, parsley, and tomato. Bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat so that the liquid is barely bubbling. Cover and continue to simmer for a further 3 hours or until the chicken feels very tender.

Mom was right! chicken soup really is 'Jewish Penicillin' for your cold. Habayit Restaurant offers the best Kosher Jewish, Mediterranean, and American-Israeli food in all of Los Angeles. Come in today to experience the joys of our food for yourself.