More fodder for grandmas everywhere: Japanese researchers have published a new study showing that the collagen proteins found in chicken may actually lower blood pressure. What’s more, that poultry broth floating your noodles or matzo ball might well allow a patient with high blood pressure to reduce medications known as ACE inhibitors.
Chicken soup is a well-traveled remedy for the common cold that has earned some scientific stripes in recent years, documenting the healing effect. Something about the proteins to build up our immune system’s defense along with hot liquid opening up the air passages.
In truth, the new soup study focuses on chicken itself and not the broth or (though there is something to be said about the health value of the Japanese buckwheat variety). Clearly with an ulterior motive in mind—not always mutually exclusive to developing alternative remedies—scientists at Nippon Meat Packers Inc.’s Research and Development Center explored whether chicken collagen (connective tissue) can be used as the active ingredient in a blood pressure medication. Their report was published in late October in the peer-reviewed Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Scientists at Hiroshima University partnered on the study.
