There is something about October that makes me sick, literally, not figuratively. The combination of the temperature drop and the rising amount of schoolwork has, without fail, landed me in bed with a cold during October since grammar school. This year seems to be no different. I have been sipping tea and popping vitamins for the past week trying to prevent my sniffles from turning into a full-blown cold nightmare.
I failed. I spent my weekend in bed with a box of tissues, endless mugs of tea and season 4 of Entourage (to distract me from my misery). There was one thing missing, however, from my usual under-the-weather accoutrement: soup. Nothing can lift me from the October doldrums as quickly as a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup.
No one, and I mean no one — except my mom — makes chicken noodle soup like my grandmother does. I don't know if she legitimately has the perfect recipe, if her 50-year-old soup pot has some magic in it or if she just puts the right amount of grandmotherly love into her cooking, but her chicken noodle soup has healing powers.
Now, I know what you're thinking: My grandmother's soup probably kicks her grandmother's soup in the tuchus. Maybe you're right (you're not ... seriously), but regardless, chicken noodle soup seems to have some special ability to relieve cold symptoms. It could just be a self-fulfilling prophecy — I think the soup will make me feel better, so it does — or there could be legitimate medical truth behind it. Dr. Stephen Rennard, a pulmonary specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre, wanted to see if there actually is any scientific merit behind the healing abilities of chicken noodle soup.
Dr. Rennard tested 14 different types of chicken soup, including his wife's grandmother's recipe, in his laboratory, and the results of his experiment were published in Oct. 2000. He added the soups to white blood cells called neutrophils, which attack invading viruses. When neutrophils move quickly they cause a buildup of fluids in the chest, causing inflammation and congestion, which makes your nose and lungs stuffy. In all 14 cases, adding the soup to the cells slowed their movement, which would prevent congestion from occurring. So, did Dr. Rennard scientifically prove that chicken noodle soup has medicinal powers?
Not exactly. He only did the test once, and each type of soup slowed the neutrophils at different rates, leaving the scientific community highly skeptical of his results. So maybe on a highfalutin medical level there is no proof for the power of chicken noodle soup, but there is a physiological basis for soup's healing abilities. Rachael Ray, of all people, knows what it is.
It annoys me to no end when RR stands over a pot of soup and says, "Wow, that's like a chicken facial!" Unfortunately, in this one case, the woman knows what she's talking about. Even though chicken noodle soup itself has no accepted scientific credibility as a remedy for cold symptoms, the steam it releases does. The steam emanating from a bowl of soup breaks up nasal secretions so you sniffle less, and it decreases lung inflammation so you breathe more easily.
I still think there's more to it than just the steam, no matter what the scientific community says. Chicken soup warms your body and keeps you hydrated. It also has the perfect balance of carbohydrates, protein and vegetables, all of which my sore throat could not handle unless they were in a soup-induced tender, soft state. Scientific proof or not, when it's October and Ari Gold just isn't cutting it, I'm reaching for the chicken noodle soup — preferably from my grandmother's kitchen.
Caryn Horowitz is a junior majoring in history. She can be reached at Caryn.Horowitz@tufts.edu.
