"Cold researchers keep trying to figure out why chicken soup does a sick body good. One finding: cysteine, an amino acid that's released by cooked chicken. It's chemically similar to a bronchitis drug, acetylcysteine, and it works with other soup ingredients to reduce inflammation. Salty broth also helps thin mucus.
Chicken soup helps even more if you rev it up with spices: garlic, which has a well-earned reputation for squelching infection, and hot red pepper, which contains capsaicin, a powerful decongestant that intensifies the soup's sinus-clearing effects." [-beautyeats]
If chicken soup is too bland for your palate, there’s even more good news—spicing it up with some garlic and hot red pepper will help it do an even better job of thinning your mucus or whatever.
Apparently, there’s science behind all the classic remedies, like drinking hot tea with lemon and honey, as well as eating hot oatmeal or cold yogurt. I’m just psyched at the possibility of skipping that post-Nyquil drowsiness.
