The oldest home remedies from grandma, or even great-grandma these days, are the best. These include Moro's carrot soup, which has unfortunately been somewhat forgotten. Even though it puts many an antibiotic in the shade. A good reason to take a closer look at this soup.

How Moro's carrot soup was discovered

Moro's carrot soup was invented around 1908 by Ernst Moro, a Heidelberg professor and head of the children's hospital at the time. At that time, many children were dying of diarrhea and he was urgently looking for a solution to counteract the loss of electrolytes. He stumbled across the super effect that boiled carrots still had by chance. Not only did the desired electrolyte balance occur, but the diarrhea also disappeared. And so the lives of many children could finally be saved.

How Moro's carrot soup works

It was only decades later that the secret of the soup was scientifically revealed and its superpowers uncovered. Normally, the diarrhea pathogens attach themselves to certain docking sites, receptors, in the intestine and can then do their mischief. They multiply and release their toxins here, for example, which considerably weaken and damage the body. This results in diarrhea.

The pectins in the carrots are broken down during the prolonged cooking process of Moro's carrot soup. Pectins are essential components of plant cell walls and are a natural dietary fiber. This "breaking up" process produces very special sugar molecules called oligogalacturonic acids. These molecules attach themselves to the same docking sites in the intestine and thus block them for the diarrhea pathogens. In other words, they coat the intestine from the inside and the pathogens "slip through". In addition, these molecules look very similar to intestinal receptors, so that the pathogens bind to them and are excreted via the stool. As a result, the intestines cleanse themselves.

In addition, carrots contain important minerals and vitamins that also help to combat diarrhea. Electrolytes are balanced and the soup also counteracts the loss of fluids.

Moro's carrot soup helps with these effects against bacteria, viruses and worms. A real all-rounder, with no chemical additives and absolutely no side effects!

Recipe for Moro's carrot soup

Unfortunately, you need a little time to make the soup, although most of it actually makes itself. The practical thing is that you can freeze it and defrost it again as required. That way, you always have them to hand when an emergency arises.

For the sake of simplicity, I'm describing the recipe for 500 grams of carrots. But it is easy to vary.

Basically, you need:

• 500g carrots
• 1 liter of water
• 1 tsp salt
• The boiled water to fill up

Wash the carrots and, if necessary, peel them (but you don't have to, it's actually better if the peel is boiled too). Cut them into small pieces and remove the ends. Put everything in a large pot and cover the carrots with a liter of water. Now put the whole thing on the stove and cook once. bring to the boil. Then leave the carrots to simmer on the lowest setting for 90 minutes. But don't really stop the time until the carrots are boiling, otherwise the pectins won't break down and that's exactly the effect we want! Keep checking the water level during cooking and top up if necessary. After 90 minutes, drain the carrots. But please collect the vegetable water as we still need it. Then puree the carrots as finely as possible. The finer the puree, the better the oligosaccharides can adhere to the intestinal wall. Then stir the vegetable water into the puree as required to create a creamy consistency, similar to thick buttermilk. Finally, season the soup with a teaspoon of salt.

There are various versions of this recipe on the internet, such as a sweet version with honey. Here, honey is stirred into the soup according to taste. The honey also has antibacterial effects and can serve as an additional source of energy due to the sugar.

A savory version is to add chicken to the soup. For this, lean chicken (without skin, as this is too fatty for the irritated intestine!) is cooked separately and then folded into the soup in small pieces.

Dosage

You should eat the soup as soon as diarrhea-like symptoms begin. Small children can also eat it, as the soup was originally designed for them. You can even give it to your dog!

As far as the "dosage" is concerned, you can't really go wrong. You can eat as much of it as you like. There is no such thing as an "overdose". On the contrary, most people with acute diarrhea don't have much of an appetite anyway, so you probably won't be able to down more than a small portion anyway. So it's better to eat several smaller portions throughout the day.

If it doesn't improve significantly after 1-3 days or you have additional symptoms, the soup is of course no substitute for a visit to the doctor! But Moro's carrot soup is certainly a good way to get diarrhea under control again quickly at the beginning ;-)

However, if the diarrhea lasts longer, we recommend further measures, as we have described in detail in our blog article on diarrhea. If you prefer listening to reading, we recommend you listen to our podcast episode Fighting diarrhea effectively.