Does Chicken Essence Do Any Good?

I haven’t been feeling too well these couple of days – queasy, a bit dizzy, not much appetite – so I rummaged through the larder for something that wouldn’t be too hard on my digestive system. Aha – chicken essence! Which set me wondering – besides tasting good, what does it do? Is there anything to those stupid ads featuring clever kids from top schools holding up these little bottles?

Off to the Internet I went, and found, to my surprise, research papers done on chicken essence. Amazing.

From a 2003 Malaysian study done on fourth-year medical students: chicken essence contains a “concentrated amount of proteins, amino acids and peptides… compared to homemade traditional chicken soup”. Given a “series of tests to assess their mental and physical well-being, as well as attention and memory”, the students who took chicken essence “fared significantly better”. The authors think that chicken essence increases mental relaxation, which in turn improves cognitive function.

This supports a 1997 Singapore paper that suggests that Brand’s chicken essence (very specific) increases the level of serotonin in the brain.

A 2006 Japanese paper shows that Brand’s chicken essence (also very specific) improves glucose metabolism by 10% in stressful situations.

Other papers show that chicken essence may improve the immune and circulatory systems.

On the other hand, one of my patients recently moaned, “I’ve been taking too much chicken essence – look at all these zits on my chin!”

Well, I suppose that if an ‘overdose’ can produce symptoms, perhaps a ‘therapeutic’ dose really does have some effect. Gimme some.