What Happens To Your Body When You Eat Chicken Noodle Soup While You're Sick

In many places around the world, it's a long-standing tradition to eat chicken noodle soup when you get a cold. Since a young age, we just accepted the soup as a quick cure and never questioned its validity — because it seems to work. Slurp down a hearty bowl, take a nap, and you might wake up feeling better. Indeed, chicken noodle soup has some excellent benefits for the immune system, and it can also help remedy many of the symptoms of the common cold. But it's not a cure. 

In fact, there is no cure for the common cold. Instead, all the "cures" that we take to battle runny noses and annoying coughs are actually just treatments for managing the symptoms. They won't directly kill off the virus, though they can make you more comfortable while your immune system fights off the pathogen. That includes all the common over-the-counter cold medications, like cough syrups, fever reducers, and decongestant nasal sprays.

Chicken noodle soup has such symptom-treating properties, too. But, more importantly, it can help boost your immune system. Thus, it's both a comfort food in times of sneezing as well as a system booster that provides the fuel your immune system needs. Packed with protein, hydration, electrolytes, vitamins, and carbs, chicken noodle soup's role in fighting off colds is completely justified. Those are all things that the body uses up faster when it's sick, so replenishing them is important.

If you've ever felt that dreaded tickle in your throat that warns of an incoming cold, you may have followed the oft-cited advice to "drink plenty of water" and began chugging relentless amounts of water in a desperate attempt to nip the virus in the bud. Unfortunately, this isn't always the best way to hydrate. The recommendation to "drink plenty of liquids" when you have a cold is sound advice. However, proper hydration involves more than just H₂O. It also involves minerals, electrolytes, and sugars, all things that the immune system consumes at a faster rate when it's fighting a virus (especially when you have a fever and sweat out water and salts).

In fact, drinking a ton of pure water can actually dilute the electrolytes in your system. It's called water poisoning, and it can lead to serious side effects like confusion, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps, and seizures — all symptoms you don't want to add to the list when you're already sick. 

That's why chicken noodle soup is such an excellent hydrator. Rather than diluting the minerals in your body, chicken noodle soup replenishes them. Chock-full of minerals and electrolytes, including magnesium, potassium, and sodium, its broth delivers the ingredients your body needs to fight off a cold. Any hydrating vegetables you add to the soup, like celery, carrots, and onions, will also pack in extra fluids and minerals. 

When your sinuses are clogged up, simply sitting with a hot bowl of soup and breathing in the steam can help ease the discomfort. The warm water vapor relaxes inflamed tissues and also thins out the mucus in your nasal passages. Your nose might start dripping more, but you'll find it easier to expel the mucus and unclog that stuffy nose. Eating the soup and drinking the broth can also help loosen up mucus. As you drink it, the heat can make the mucus more viscous and, again, more easily expelled into a tissue. Some experts suggest that chicken noodle soup's mild anti-inflammatory properties can further relax the sinus tissues and help unclog them. Adding veggies with beta-carotene in them, like carrots, will also boost the anti-inflammatory effects.

Chicken itself, in soup or otherwise, has been shown to be a natural decongestant. That's because it contains cysteine, an amino acid that's been demonstrated to help loosen mucus and other such "secretions." Considering mucus is one of the body's (kind of gross) adaptations to trap pathogens, loosening it up to clear it out of the body is a good thing. 

The same soothing effect chicken noodle soup has on the sinuses can help the throat. As the warm broth passes down your pharynx and esophagus, it relaxes and reduces the inflammation that causes a cough. It's the same reason warm teas are a favorite for folks with sore throats. Plus, the soft noodles and chicken won't scratch your throat going down.

The digestive system and the immune system are two separate organ systems of the human body, but they're powerfully interconnected. According to a 2021 scientific review published in Nutrients, "The gut microbiota has a crucial role in the protection against [...] viral respiratory infections, because the gut microbiota directly steers the innate and adaptive immune response." The paper goes on to highlight several studies showing how probiotics could "improve the health outcome of respiratory infections." 

While chicken noodle soup doesn't have many probiotics, it's still good for your stomach health, mostly because it's so easy to eat. Oftentimes, you may lose your appetite when you're sick, and because your immune system consumes extra calories and nutrients when it's fighting a virus, you need to feed yourself well, even if you don't want to. Thus, since chicken noodle soup is so nutrient-dense and easy to eat a large amount of, it's the perfect food for filling up your stomach when you're sick without increasing nausea or feelings of being bloated.

Chicken noodle soup also has several beneficial compounds for improving gut health. Amino acids, including glutamine, glycine, and proline, can reduce gut inflammation and aid in cell repair and regeneration. Particularly when the broth is prepared with the bones, chicken soup is a great source of collagen, which strengthens the lining of the digestive tract. But even if your soup doesn't have bone broth, the aforementioned amino acids can boost collagen production naturally. Plus, because chicken soup is so easy on the stomach, it's an easy way to get those digestive juices flowing.