Doctors recommend that you consume about eight cups (250 ml) of fluid, including water, fruit juices, and soups, during a flu or cold bout and recovery. Just make sure that you space the fluids throughout the day. There is no need to have lots at one go. Soups are nutritious and high in calories, easy to make. Soups keep you hydrated, sated, and are easy to digest. They can also help in preventing and controlling nausea and diarrhea.

When one thinks of the perfect soup to fight flu and colds – there is nothing like a warm chicken soup or broth. Some recipes have survived for centuries and even today remain as the first go-to remedy for flu and cold.

1. Why is Chicken Soup Such a Good Flu Remedy?
Chicken soup has adequate calories to help you regain the strength that you lost due to fever and cold. While being cooked, chicken bones release glucosamine essential for gut health. Along with gelatin from the bones, glucosamine helps in healing the digestive tract. Chicken also contains a compound carnosine, which helps in reducing congestion and stuffiness. The compounds in the joints and tissues of the chicken bone have anti-inflammatory properties. When our body absorbs them, it helps to reduce inflammation and also fightback from the effects of flu.

2. Add These Ingredients to Your Chicken Soup
There are many variations and recipes of chicken soups – some guard their recipes so very carefully. Spices and herbs add flavor and have abundant healing properties that can hasten your recovery. Once the flu season sets in, make sure your pantry is stocked with chicken as well as these spices and herbs. The spices can help the mucus to thin out and relieve congestion. Include one or multiple ingredients listed below in your chicken soup for both taste and health.

• Garlic
• Onions
• Turmeric
• Ginger
• Pepper
• Cumin
• Herbs like rosemary, lemongrass, thyme, basil, and oregano

3. Tips to Make Variations
The good news is a chicken soup can be made as a standalone dish or combined with vegetables to make it doubly nutritious. It is ideal to slow cook the chicken and bones in a deep ban or a slow cooker; hence, all the nutrition and healthy compounds are gradually released into the broth. Cooking it fast or on a high flame will not allow all the healthy compounds to be released effectively.

• Add vegetables like carrot, parsnip, celery, French beans, broccoli, and mushrooms to the chicken soup. You can also add shrimp if you have it in your pantry.
• Add some boiled noodles or spoonful of rice or a few cubes of tofu to make it wholesome when your appetite returns; the chicken noodle soup can be a meal by itself.
• Make batches of the broth and freeze it. You can thaw it and add veggies or any item you choose as and when you feel hungry.