We've all had those sick days. What did you do on yours? Did your mom bring you some homemade Chicken Noodle Soup? Chicken Noodle Soup is just about the best remedy for a simple a case of the sniffles. It has even been proven to cure a minor cold!
Chicken Noodle Soup has several obvious ingredients as well as some surprising newer ingredients, but what truly makes up this delectable soup? First there is chicken, which is composed of many ingredients including tryptophan, vitamin B3, and proteins- these are complex molecular structures composed of chains of 10 or more amino acids. Chicken is also made up of selenomethione, vitamin B6, phosphorus, and choline. But wait, what else? Oodles of Noodles, which provide notable amounts of iron, thiamine, folic acid, riboflavin, and niacin. Chicken Noodle Soup is full of healthy, vitamin filled vegetables, such as carrots and celery. Carrots are a great source of vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin B6, vitamin B3, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin E. They also contain fiber, potassium, manganese, molybdenum, folate, and phosphorus. Celery is another common ingredient that contains many vitamins including vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin B2, and vitamin B5. It also contains folate, potassium, molybdenum, fiber, manganese, calcium, tryptophan, and magnesium. Carrots and celery contain similar ingredients.
Chicken:
- tryptophan (C₁₁H₁₂N₂O₂)
- vitamin B3 (C₆H₅NO₂)
- selenomethione (C₅H₁₁NO₂Se)
- vitamin B6 (C₈H₁₁NO₃)
- phosphorus (P)
- choline (C₅H₁₄NO)
Noodles:
iron (Fe)
- thiamine (C₁₂H₁₇N₄OS)
- folic acid (C₁₉H₁₉N₇O₆)
- riboflavin (C₁₇H₂₀N₄O₆)
- niacin (C₆H₅NO₂)
Carrots and Celery:
- vitamin A (C₂₀H₃₀O)
- vitamin K (C13H16ClNO)
- vitamin B3 (C6H₅NO₂)
- vitamin B1 (C₁₂H₁₇N₄OS)
- vitamin B2 (C₁₇H₂₀N₄O₆)
- vitamin E (C₂₉H₅₀O₂)
- potassium (K)
- molybdenum (MoS₂)
- folate (C₁₉H₁₉N₇O₆)
- phosphorus (P)
- vitamin B5 (C₉H₁₇NO₅)
- calcium (Ca)
- tryptophan (C₁₁H₁₂N₂O₂)
- magnesium (Mg)
Now let's dissect this common meal and see how it helps our body. There are many key ingredients to chicken noodle soup, but let’s focus on the main ingredients. Obviously you can't have chicken noodle soup without chicken, so how does chicken affect our body? In 2000, Dr. Stephen Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha conducted a study to determine why chicken noodle soup might help colds. His studies demonstrated that chicken contain an amino acid called cysteine. This acid is released from the chicken when the soup is cooked. Cysteine helps thin the mucus in the lungs, making it easier to cough. Soup is also made up of water or H₂O. Some researchers have shown that the steam from the soup may help soothe inflamed airways. Chicken soup also improves the function of protective cilia. Lastly, many add garlic to their soup for the simple reason that garlic has strong antiseptic and antispasmodic properties that help you stop coughing.
Hundreds of worldwide companies make soup, such as Campbell's and Progresso. Thousands of factories are needed to produce all of these soups. These factories emit smoke into the air, which can be incredibly harmful to our environment. One of the effects of pollution is water pollution. A necessity of every organism is water. Unfortunately, the smoke and pollution factories emit can contaminate water. Factories pollute the air through fossil fuel emissions. These emissions include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. When you have large amounts of these gases being emitted at once, this can be harmful to the environment because it is pollution. Human caused pollution from factories is leading to the unnatural greenhouse effect and climate change. This is affecting our atmosphere, such as the ozone layer, the climate, our water, and it is even affecting human health which is counterproductive to healthy benefits of Chicken Noodle Soup.
Not only is Chicken Noodle Soup Delicious, but it is nutritious as well. It has been clinically proven to help heal the common cold. So have a bowl of this soup a day and avoid a co-pay at the
Chicken Noodle Soup Lab
Observations:
Broth · Steaming · 179.87 ºF, hot · Top of soup is curdled Noodles with Chicken and Broth · 179.23 ºF, hot · Curdled a lot in one area · Steaming Everything! · Bubbling and steaming · 174.36 ºF, hot · A curdled at the top |
Procedures:
1. Put Chicken Broth in a bowl. 2. Heat up in microwave for 4 minutes. 3. Take out of microwave and record temperature. 4. Repeat steps 1-3, but vary with Noodles with Chicken and Broth and vary with Everything. Conclusion: I conclude that there is not direct correlation between the time it takes for soup to heat up and whether there is only broth, broth with chicken and noodles, everything in the soup. For my lab I put a bowl of broth in the microwave for 3 minutes, after the three minutes were up I recorded the temperature. I repeated this each of the different ingredients in the soup I have come to the conclusion that this was a physical change because I was only heating it up the microwave, there was no change in the molecular structure. |