Chicken
Soup Heals
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Feel the Love with....
CHICKEN SOUP!
Discover the amazing health benefits...
What classic comfort food cured Mahatma Gandhi's son of typhus and
pneumonia, was the main food of the ancient Roman soldiers, is enjoyed
daily throughout the world, is the basis of countless soups and other dishes,
and has been used for centuries by loving mothers to treat colds and flu?
Of course, it's chicken soup!
Broth made from birds may have been eaten for 500,000 years!-when humans first
began to cook. This may be why chicken soup is such a healthy, delicious, and
deeply satisfying food for us.
Chicken broth for healing!
There are many healing nutrients in broth made with chicken and bones.1 The gelatin that forms indicates the presence of collagen from the meat, bones, skin and cartilage. Collagen can be thought of as the glue that holds our bodies together, for it stregthens our own tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, and bones. For example, gelatin also has glucosamine and chondroiton, which are often taken as supplements for joint pain.
The main amino acid that makes up the collagen in gelatin is glycine. In fact, gelatin is the food that is highest in glycine. Glycine is also very important because it becomes glutathione, our main detoxifier. In addition, glycine counters the effects of pesticides, and is a calming neurotransmittor that acts to prevent seizures. It is also anti-cancer, heals muscles and membranes (as collagen), and prevents hypoglycemia.
Chicken broth is also the best food source of glutamic acid per calorie. Glutamic acid detoxifies the body of ammonia, and this process converts it into glutamine. Glutamine is critical for healing, especially the gut, beause it is the main food of cells in the gut. Glutamine also prevents muscle loss and is highly valued by body builders. Glutamine is a major detoxifier of the brain (of ammonia), and those with depression or anxiety may benefit from glutamine. It is an important source for cell energy, and is recommended for cancer patients.
Broth is very high in arginine and so needs foods that are high in lysine, such as traditional
additions of cheese, beans, potatoes, meat. Broth also contains calcium and magnesium.
Chicken Meat and Soup Vegetables for Adrenal Fatigue!
Many nutrients in chicken soup support another prostacyclin, called PGE1. Unlike arachidonic acid, production of PGE1 is completely dependent on D6D activity. So, nutrients that support this enzyme are critical. PGE1 is of great importance because it activates many hormones, for it acts as a "second messenger" for all the adrenal hormones, as well as for vitamin D.
Delta 6 desaturase activity is supported by B6, zinc, vitamin C, and saturated fats. Chicken meat is one of the best sources of B6 and zinc, and chicken fat contains saturated fat. Also, traditional high vitamin C ingredients like greens, tomatoes, potatoes, and lemon juice are usually added to the soup. In this way, regular servings of chicken soup should help increase D6D activity, which is very often lacking, and increase PGE1. Chicken soup thus supports the activity of many critical hormones.
Chicken broth, made with carrots, is also very high in beta-carotene, which is an important antioxidant. Beta-carotene neutralizes free radicals in the body that would damage arachidonic acid, which would then form inflammatory hormones. So, make your broth with plenty of carrots!
1. Please see Nourishing Broth, by S. Fallon and K. Daniel, PhD. for many testimonials and references concerning broth.
Chicken Fat is Brain Food!
Chicken Broth and Soup Recipes
Arachidonic Acid: an "Essential Fatty Acid"
The arachidonic acid (AA) that is so abundant in chicken fat is an omega fat which is only found in animal fat. Chicken skin and eggs are the best meat sources of AA. Notably, super-healthy wild-caught salmon is twice as high in AA than chicken meat. Interestingly,
Both omega fats from animal fat, arachidonic acid and EPA, are considered to be “essential fatty acids” when they can't be made in the body from plant omega fats. This is because, unlike other fats, omega fats are bio-active, for they make and activate hormones. For example, AA is converted to the anti-inflammatory homone prostacyclin. Also, in the presence of free radicals, AA is converted to inflammatory hormones that kill viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites (see "Inflammation from Vegetable Oils, not AA", below).
As a result, an adequate supply of these fats is necessary for reproduction. AA is also responsible for making the "tight junctions" of our membranes, protect us from pathogens. If these junctions are not tightly closed it results in problems of leaky gut as well as a leaky blood-brain barrier, with its food sensitivities and mental disorders. AA is also a major component of eyes, the brain, and our muscles, and it is the source for endocannibiboids which, like the cannibis that activates endocannabinoid receptors, are calming and pain-suppressing.
AA supplementation was found to increase prostacyclin. Prostacyclin is critical for people with coronary heart disease (CHD), because it is the body’s major vasodilator (our natural warfarin). Prostacyclin is used to treat congestive heart failure, pulmonary arterial disease, and ischemia. It also prevents fatty liver and high triglycerides. Prostacyclin protects the gastric mucosa and brain cells, induces labor, is an important anti-cancer hormone, and aids in bone metabolism. Prostacyclin also was found to increase blood flow to the retina, and is thought to help with diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
D6D enzyme needed for AA
High Omega 6 fat from plant oil inhibits D6D
AA can be made in very small quantities from omega 6 fat from seeds, soy, corn, and peanuts (linoleic acid), using desaturase enzymes. Desaturase enymes also make EPA from plant omega 3’s. However, one of these enzymes is affected by many things and, as a result, is often deficient. This is delta 6 desaturase, or D6D.
This enzyme depends on adequate vitamin B6, zinc, vitamin C, and saturated fat in the diet. In addition, transfats and alcohol inhibit D6D enzyme activity, plus D6D activity is low with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cancer, dermatitis, and with older people and with infants. Furthermore, people with Celtic, Scandinavian, and Native American ancestry (whose traditional diet included enough meat/fish to supply AA and EPA) may lack D6D enzyme activity. As a result, a large segment of our population is unable to metabolize omega fats from seeds, soy, corn, and peanuts to obtain arachidonic acid. Since the same D6D enzyme is needed to convert plant omega 3 fats to EPA, these same people are unable to convert plant omega 3's from flax seed to EPA, so these fats, which are unstable, simply get oxidized in the body.
Not surprisingly, then, many people have been found to be low in both AA and EPA. Since AA is the source for prostacyclin 2 and endocannibinoids, many may also be low in both hormones. AA is low with brain disorders such as anxiety, ADHD, schizophrenia, autism, bipolar, and Alzheimer’s. In fact, AA supplementation improved cognitive impairments in elderly men. This makes sense because AA is a major component of the brain, critical for learning and memory. Others low in AA are drug addicts, alcoholics, and people with diabetes, COPD, Sjogren’s, heart disease, inflammation, cancer, liver disease, celiac, skin problems, and osteoporosis.So, chicken soup, prepared in a truly traditional manner, that is, with pastured chicken, would be helpful to many people.
CAUTION: When dietary linoleic acid from seeds/soy/corn is higher than omega 3’s it produces free radicals, and AA in cells can be made into inflammatory hormones. Plus, high linoleic acid and transfats lower prostacyclin and AA. Vegetable oil and margarine, made from seeds/soy/corn, are very high in linoleic acid, plus they contain transfats, so they should be avoided. Fat from chickens fed with corn, cottonseeds, and soy is also higher in linoleic acid than fat from chickens with access to pasture, which raises omega 3’s in chicken fat up to 20 times. So fat from pastured chicken is very healthy and is the best kind for your soup.
