2006-06-28

'Chicken Soup' For Your Health

I like to give information if I feel it may help people. It is good to have
knowledge as long as a person uses it in the proper way, but that is
different topic. I have put this article on my Quikonnex site as well.

I borrowed a book from the library called Chicken Soup. Now this isn't
the "Chicken Soup For the Soul" books. This is a book about the remedies
for ailments that our grandparents used.  Now don't go saying 'aw phish'
'Old Wives Tales' because that will get me on to another topic about how
we have been brain washed into thinking the only good remedy is drugs.
Well that is not true and as far as I am concerned it mostly involves money.
But that is also another topic.

Most people have heard the time honored comfort food for a cold is chicken
soup, so I imagine that is the basis of this book's title, 'Chicken Soup'
It was written by Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen. It is dedicated to their Mom
and Dad, this is what they wrote; "..to the loving memory of Lillian and Jack
Wilen-- Mom, who made the best chicken soup in the whole wide world! and
Dad, who insisted we wear camphor squares around our necks!

Speaking of camphor squares I'll start with Colds. As it states in the book; If you're
out there with a red, runny nose, chest congestion and that achy flu feeling,....
keep reading for some simple cold-helping hints.

The first round of ammunition for fighting the cold  war is Chicken Soup (Jewish penicillin).
According to 'Medical World News, July 10, 1978, the director of medical services at
Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Dr. Marvin A. Sackner, proved that
chicken soup can help cure a cold.

Using a bronchofiberscope and cineroentgenograms and measurements of mucus velocity,
Dr. Sackner tested the effectiveness of hot chicken soup and hot and cold water. 
Cold water lowered nasal clearance.  Hot water improved it, but it was nothing compared to
the improvement after hot chicken soup.
Then, to negate the effects of the steam from the hot water and hot chicken soup, the fluids
were sipped through straws from covered containers.  Hot water had very little effect this way. 
The hot chicken soup still had some benefit.

Here is what I imagine is their mother's recipe for chicken soup:

4-5 pounds of chicken parts. (if you can get farm chickens you
will have more flavor plus more nutrition and hopefully no GMO,
and that is another topic! Actually, everything home grown would
be better.)
3 carrots, scrubbed or peeled,, cut in thirds
2 parsnips, scrubbed, cut in thirds
2 celery stalks with leaves, cut in thirds
1 large onion cut in half
1 green pepper, cut in half and cleaned out
2 sprigs dill (optional) or 1/2 teaspoonful of
   dill seeds
4 parsley sprigs
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 to 2 teaspoonsful of salt
10 cups of water

  Add the chicken, carrots, parsnips, celery, onion, green pepper,
water and salt to a big pot.  Wrap the dill or dill seeds, parsley and
garlic in cheesecloth and add that to the pot.  Bring it to a boil, clean
off the scum from the top of the soup, cover and simmer for 21/2 to 3 hours.
 If, after 3 hours the soup is lacking the flavor you want, add a few chicken
boullion cubes to taste.  Remove the chicken and the vegetables.  Refrigerate
the soup overnight.  Next day, before heating the soup, remove the top layer
of fat, skimming the surface with a spoon.  Add the vegetables, heat and --
Eat! before it gets cold!


Another remedy:
  In the USSR, (when it was the USSR), garlic is known as the ' Russian penicillin.  It has been
reported that colds have actually disappeared within hours - a day at most - after taking garlic. 
Keep a peeled clove of garlic in the mouth, {stay away from those you love :o) }, between the
cheek and teeth.  do not chew it.  Occassionally, release a little garlic juice by digging the
teeth into the clove. Replace the clove every 3 or 4 hours.

Number three:
  Combine a crushed clove of garlic with 1/2 teaspoonful of cayenne pepper, the juice of 1 lemon,
1,000 mg of Vitamin C (buy it powdered or grind it yourself), and 1 teaspoonful of honey.
  Dose: Take mixture 3 times a day at mealtime.

There are more remedies, if you want more, email me and I will send them to
you.  It is time we took back our lives by being responsible for our own
health instead of relying on money hungry drug companies to heal us.  Why
use a product that can give you all kinds of side effects instead of using
natural products that you probably have in your home.
 
I'm not saying all drugs are bad for you, I'm just saying why put synthetic
chemicals into your body if a natural one will work as well.  Also for those
who have to watch their pennies, it will cost you a lot less.  I love that
advertisement which sings; 'hands in my pocket' , I would just as soon it
was my hands in my pocket, not some money and power hungry uncaring company's.

Patricia Downing
coffeemarm@excite.com
Quikonnex