Could a comforting bowl of chicken soup help to treat Covid-19?
It is a commonly held belief that one of the best foods to eat when you have a cold is chicken soup: a bowl of warm, soothing, comforting deliciousness. Some even believe the nourishing broth may potentially have medicinal effects, hence its nickname: Jewish penicillin. It is unsurprising that people have tried to make a connection between chicken soup and Covid-19, given the assumption that it is effective to treat cold symptoms, many of which are similar to Covid-19 symptoms. These may include, but are not limited to, extreme fatigue, fever, a dry cough, aches and pains, headaches, a sore throat and a loss of taste or smell. Some articles have even quoted a study published in the journal Chest in 2000 in which the authors investigated the potential anti-inflammatory effect of chicken soup in patients with colds. According to the original journal article, chicken soup was shown to modestly inhibit neutrophil migration which, it was claimed, could result in an anti-inflammatory effect and lessen symptoms associated with colds.