In our impression, whenever someone gets sick, their relatives and friends will cook chicken soup for them. Is chicken soup really that nutritious, and is it suitable for all patients? The answer is no. As far as I know, although chicken soup is rich in nutrition, there are 5 types of patients who should not drink it.
Bawanghua Stewed Chicken Soup
Why do people drink chicken soup when they're sick?
Although chicken soup cannot cure diseases, it can alleviate the patient's physical symptoms and improve the body's immune function. This is because chicken soup can effectively inhibit inflammation and excessive mucus production in the human body, which helps reduce nasal congestion and sore throat, and the frequency of coughing will also relatively decrease. Therefore, when people are sick, they subconsciously cook chicken soup to replenish their nutrition.
However, chicken soup is not a panacea, and some patients are even unsuitable for drinking it.
1. Excessive stomach acid: Chicken soup can stimulate the secretion of gastric acid. Therefore, patients with gastric ulcers, excessive stomach acid, or stomach bleeding generally should not drink chicken soup.
2. Biliary diseases: Patients with frequent attacks of cholecystitis and cholelithiasis should not drink too much chicken soup, because the digestion of fat in chicken soup requires the participation of bile. Drinking chicken soup will stimulate the gallbladder to contract, easily triggering an attack of cholecystitis.
3. Hypertension: For patients with high blood pressure, drinking chicken soup can not only cause arteriosclerosis but also keep blood pressure persistently high, making it difficult to lower.
4. Hyperlipidemia: After the fat in chicken soup is absorbed, it will further promote an increase in cholesterol. Excessively high cholesterol can deposit on the inner walls of blood vessels, leading to diseases such as coronary arteriosclerosis.
5. Renal insufficiency: Chicken soup contains some small-molecule proteins. Patients with acute nephritis, acute or chronic renal insufficiency, or uremia cannot process the by-products of protein decomposition in a timely manner due to their impaired kidney and liver function. Drinking too much chicken soup can cause azotemia and worsen the condition.
In fact, the chicken soup many people cook is not as nutritious as one might imagine. Especially soups that have been simmered for a long time, after prolonged stewing, the chicken soup only contains water-soluble small-molecule substances dissolved from chicken oil, skin, meat, and bones. Besides that, it's just oil and calories, and the purine content is also very high. Objectively speaking, it is not very nutritious. And this is very unsuitable for patients with gout and cardiovascular diseases.
Therefore, experts recommend that chicken soup should not be stewed for too long.
Classic white toast