Home   >   Food   >   The Asian age-old remedy for when kids get the flu.

The Asian age-old remedy for when kids get the flu.

By on February 29, 2020

Food may be the last thing on your child’s mind when he is down with the flu.

In Asia, at the onset of a cold or flu or when children start to feel achy, the first thing moms grab to feed their children is chicken porridge. They go by different generic names. In Japan, it’s called okayu, in China and Singapore, congee, in Korea, juk, in Thailand, chok, in Indonesia, bubur and in the Philippines, lugao. It’s a versatile Asian staple cooked and seasoned in myriad ways according to the country’s culinary culture. The Japanese and Koreans generally cook their porridge with a sticky rice. The Chinese go for long or medium grain rice. The Vietnamese, Filipinos, Indonesians and Thais cook theirs with a long-grain sticky rice and a variety of aromatic seasoning.

We may take rice porridge for granted but this famous Asian street food was very important to their survival and fighting off diseases during the World War. Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), wrote in his iconic journal “Treatise on Colds. Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases,”  that congee has medical benefits in treating diseases.

Children lose a lot of body fluids when they have a high temperature. They lose their appetite. When they don’t like to eat or drink, they won’t. Yet science tells us they need to eat a nutritious meal and drink lots of fluid to get their energy back. The goals here are to get them to hydrate, eat light hot meals that are easy to digest and can make them sweat. Chinese medicine suggests eating hot congee make the body temperature go down by sweating which helps kick out unwanted pathogens colonizing the gut.

Cooked with finely shredded chicken seasoned with garlic, ginger, and vegetables, often adjusting water-rice ratio as necessary for lighter consistency, chicken porridge will help a sick child hydrate and reduce respiratory inflammation. A study published in the American Journal of Therapeutics showed that a compound found in chicken soup – carnosine, helps the body’s immune system fight the early stages of flu. It also loosens nasal congestion. Flu and colds are viral infections and thus, cause diarrhea. Adding rice to chicken soup helps heal the sensitive digestive system that absorbs fluids by adding bulk to stool. Rice is known to contain all the essential minerals the body needs such as magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, selenium, iron, folic acid, thiamine and niacin.


 

About Tammy Lee