What are the benefits of soups? What are the benefits of soup for digestion?

“First, eat the soup,” is what they usually say at the table to children who want to start dessert right away. First courses in home gastronomy and restaurant creativity are considered healthy by default, but is this really so? We answer the question using popular soups as an example.

Two main myths about the dangers of soups

Without getting too personal, it’s worth debunking several myths about soups.

First myth concerns the state of aggregation. There is an opinion that soup dilutes gastric juice and, accordingly, makes it difficult for the body to digest food. In fact, this is not so - the liquid part of the soup is not retained in the stomach, but is sent directly to the duodenum and small intestine, where pancreatic enzymes enter, and the solid components of soups (cereals, vegetables, etc.) are digested like any other food. Therefore, blaming soups for digestive problems is, at the very least, illiterate.

Second myth concerns the cooking temperature of the soup. Supposedly boiling destroys the majority useful substances in vegetables and other components. In fact, when the soup broth is ready, everything else is cooked at medium temperatures - which means most of the substances are preserved. In addition, unlike cooking, for example, potatoes or pasta, all the water with the boiled ingredients remains in the pan, and therefore there is much less loss. By the way, this is why it is recommended to eat soup when you are sick - it is much easier for us to absorb nutrients from liquid food.

Two main beneficial properties of soups

Fortunately, soups are rightly credited with beneficial properties. Firstly, they help maintain the level of water in the body (especially in winter, when we sweat less, are not thirsty and, accordingly, drink less). Secondly, soups help you feel full longer, which means you don’t overeat and maintain weight.

The results of a study by American scientists confirm that people who ate low-calorie soup during lunch (about 130 calories for women and 170 for men) consumed 20% fewer calories throughout the day as a whole.

Let's look at the main soups that we prepare at home or order in restaurants, from the point of view of harm and benefit.

Borsch and cabbage soup

Classics of domestic gastronomy - not the lightest, but healthy - borscht and cabbage soup. There is nothing terrible in the very composition of these soups (with or without beets, with sauerkraut or fresh), but the additions to the first course that are relevant for restaurant serving can significantly reduce its benefits.

For example, garlic buns (dumplings) or rich sour cream significantly increase the calorie content of the dish. This remark also applies to several pieces of lard, which are also often offered with cabbage soup or borscht in restaurants. However, it is healthy to eat lard in small quantities (provided that the quality of the meat is not satisfactory) - it contains fatty acids, selenium and vitamins.

Ear

If we are not talking about a dish prepared with saury from a can, then any other fish soup can confidently be added to the list of healthy soups. Low calorie content (about 40–50 calories per 100 g), B vitamins, iodine, magnesium, phosphorus and other microelements from fish are why you can and should love this type of soup.

Solyanka

Alas, solyanka is one of the most harmful soups due to the use of sausages, smoked meat and other ingredients in it. Scientific research show that daily consumption of more than 40 grams of sausages or other processed meats increases the risk of cancer and premature death.

In addition, solyanka is a fairly high-calorie soup compared to others (about 100 calories per 100 g). And rich meat broth combined with sourness from cucumbers, lemon and excessive saltiness of sausage and other meat is heavy food that is difficult to digest. Therefore, if you still want hodgepodge, it is better to cook it yourself - from real meat, and not from semi-finished products or sausages.

Cream soup

Cream soup is exactly the same soup as all the others, but with a slightly unusual consistency. It is especially easy for the body to digest, since there are no solid components at all. But there are some nuances that should be taken into account by everyone who cares about healthy eating.

Sometimes, to prepare cream soups, the cook uses a ready-made base from a can or bag. In cheap cafes, this is most likely the case. In this case, the substance with which the surface of the packaging is coated can pose a chemical hazard to the body (traces of it were found in the urine of those who ate soup made from canned food).

Another danger of cream soups is their excessive fat content. For example, heavy cream is added to many soups to enhance flavor and create a creamy texture. Their high calorie content will definitely not help those who need it to lose weight.

It is worth paying attention to the ingredients of the cream soup. If these are vegetables (broccoli, tomato, cauliflower), then a bowl of soup is unlikely to result in an eating disorder, but you should be careful with mushroom or spicy soups - for some it can be heavy food.

Soup that's perfect for you

When choosing soup, you should be guided not only by individual preferences, but also by general rules.

If you're watching your weight, choose soup made with vegetable broth, opt for poultry and fish over red meat, and avoid add-ons like rich sour cream or white bread.

Those with capricious stomachs and allergy sufferers should read the list of ingredients more carefully, avoid spicy and fatty foods - instead of hodgepodge, choose, for example, borscht.

Remember that if you prepare the soup yourself, you can significantly reduce its calorie content, replace questionable ingredients with healthy ones, and enjoy the soup for several days (the main thing is not to forget to put the pan in the refrigerator every time). Everything else is a matter of taste and financial capabilities.

Bon appetit!

Maria Ruskova

Photo depositphotos.com

Recently, soups have become less and less popular. They are increasingly being replaced by fast food. After all, many today have already forgotten that according to Russian traditions, the first course was always soup. Now opinions differ: is it useful or is it still considered harmful?

Useful properties of soup:

The first course should always be hearty, but at the same time it can be light. During cold weather, soup warms well, improves metabolism, and the body receives more heat and energy from it. The soup is easily digestible and promotes good digestion. In it, more useful substances are not lost, but remain preserved, than in other dishes that are subjected to in various ways frying, stewing. These beneficial substances and the gentle cooking method itself, as well as the presence of liquid, protect against the occurrence of gastritis.

Soups may contain fewer calories than some main courses.

To improve your health various diseases, soups play a restorative role.

Level blood pressure depends on the fluid balance that liquid meals restore.

Chicken broths affect blood vessels, and also have an anti-inflammatory effect and relieve colds.

It is useful to eat soup for both lunch and dinner.

Soup helps to cope with excess weight due to its low calorie content; it fills you up faster, but it is difficult to overeat.

Meat-free soups help restore normal intestinal microflora.

When cereals are added to them, toxins are removed and prevent the absorption of cholesterol, which is harmful to the body.

To make soups even healthier, you need to consume different types of them at different times of the year. For example, in winter it is better to eat richer ones, and in summer lighter ones.

Negative properties of the soup:

If you remember the rules separate power supply, then it is not recommended to consume liquid and solid food at the same time, and the liquid contained in the soup, if it is in large quantities, dilutes gastric juice, and reduces the efficiency of the digestion process.

Processing foods under the influence of heat significantly reduces nutritional properties. Raw vegetables contain more nutrients than the same vegetables when cooked.

When consuming broth, you need to be prepared for the fact that harm may be caused to the entire body. This will be facilitated by substances that can be formed during the heat treatment of certain products and which the liver will not have time to process due to rapid absorption into the intestines. For example, if you undercook beans or any legumes, then harmful and even toxic substances will enter the blood much faster, which will not bring you any benefit.

Creatine, as a harmful chemical, gets into the broth when cooking meat. Besides this, there are other harmful substances that are used for the rapid growth of animals.

You can cook the soup by draining the broth in which the meat was cooked for 5 minutes, thereby getting rid of harmful substances and continue cooking in the second broth.

When cooking chicken or meat broth, when it cools, remove any visible fat from it and dilute it with water. The resulting weak broth contains fewer harmful substances.

You can cook the meat separately and add it to the separately cooked vegetable soup.

Soups that should be preferred:

Pea soups. It contains substances that help the synthesis of amino acids. With its deficiency, dermatitis occurs. Intestinal motility also improves. This soup is hearty, but can be either low-calorie or high-calorie, depending on the additives and thickness.

Rassolnik. It is useful because it contains pearl barley, which contains many vitamins and microelements. They improve the body's resistance to viruses, help strengthen the heart muscle, remove toxins and strengthen the body as a whole.

By consuming soups, the body will be strong and healthy. Don't forget that fast food is very unhealthy, even though it is delicious. Therefore, greater preference should be given to soup. Soup is also a good helper for those who are trying to lose weight.

Do you remember this expression from childhood: “You should have soup in your stomach once a day?” Mothers and grandmothers taught us that we must eat liquid dishes for lunch, otherwise there will be problems with digestion. Is this really true?

Soups: good or bad?

ABOUT beneficial properties there is a lot of debate about first courses. Some say that soup is dietary product, broths are especially useful. But there are also opponents of first courses. Firstly, they argue, when cooking broth, substances harmful to the body are released from meat, they become poison for it. Secondly, the liquid that is present in soups washes out gastric juice, as a result, food is poorly digested. In addition, many are sure that soup is just a way to save on groceries, and that is why it has been so popular for hundreds of years.

Why is it worth eating soup?

Nutritionists agreed that the soup is still healthy. But you need to cook it correctly - do not cook the meat on the bone for hours, but boil it separately and add it to the already prepared dish. But it's best to cook vegetable soups , and for those who have problems with the stomach and intestines - puree soups. After all, the soup promotes active secretion of gastric juice and prepares the body for the digestion process, warms the walls of the stomach. Soup restores fluid balance, helps other dishes digest, and in the cold season it perfectly warms and relaxes.

First meal quickly and easily digested. In addition, this is a voluminous food: we quickly get full, while receiving a minimum of calories. That is, it promotes weight loss. Nutritionists recommend regularly including vegetable soups in your diet, especially for those who are watching their weight. In addition, soup is very useful for constipation.

What should the right soup be like?

The soup should not be very hot and not very cold;

A spicy first course is undesirable;

Cook the soup in the second broth, or better yet, boil the meat separately and add to the soup;

When cooking soups, avoid seasonings containing chemical food additives.

Don't fry the soup

The more vegetables in the soup, the better;

Do not allow the soup to boil. After all, air circulation destroys beneficial substances;

Consume vegetable soup immediately on the day of preparation;

Eat one soup and skip the other

Not recommended get carried away with first courses for those who suffer from high acidity: warm broth or broth will further increase acid formation. On our Vulcan777 casino portal you can play slot machines. And don’t get carried away with fatty, rich broths - they will only aggravate stomach problems.

Many rumors and myths on the topic of the benefits and harms of soups create misconceptions about the need for first (liquid) courses in the human diet.

Research by scientists proves that those who eat first courses every day lose weight more easily and effectively than people who do not have soups in their diet. However, the results of these studies can be questioned if it turns out that the people who took part in them drank little water, and the soups simply replenished the body's fluid needs. In any case, soup is a very good food product for creating a feeling of fullness. First courses allow you not to increase your caloric intake. In this case, food density (saturation) can be reduced: the amount of nutrients will not be very large, but the volume of food will be sufficient. With the help of soup you can arrange fasting days, unless, of course, it is a meat soup and it does not contain a lot of fat.

To be fair, we can say that you can increase the volume of food intake and reduce its calorie content with the help of salads, fiber and bran (cabbage, carrots, apples, persimmons, bananas, bread with bran, adding fiber to food).

The health benefits of soups seem questionable.

You can often hear that people with stomach diseases (gastritis, ulcers) simply need to eat liquid. In fact, they require frequent, small and fractional feeding. In addition, at some stages of such diseases you should not eat raw vegetables and fruits, because their juice has an irritating effect. Therefore, for some diseases of the stomach and intestines, soups are recommended, although, for example, you can bake an apple, stew carrots and cabbage.

Harm of soups (borscht, cabbage soup)

1. Liquid during meals dilutes gastric juice, which significantly impairs digestion.

2. Heat treatment dramatically reduces the amount of nutrients in food. All vitamins and biologically active substances They die already at a temperature of 57 degrees.

3. Warm meat or chicken broth, entering the body, is very quickly absorbed by the intestines, and the liver, due to its capacity, does not have time to process the large quantities of meat extracts contained in the broth. As a result, extracts in the form of unsplit poisons bypass the liver and begin their “journey” throughout the body, causing harm to many internal organs.

4. When cooking meat, various harmful chemicals pass into the broth, the main ones being creatine and creatinine. In addition, in our time, when raising animals for slaughter, to increase their weight, unpious farmers use various chemicals that accumulate in the meat and also harm the consumer. For the sake of example, we can cite the results of one interesting experiment: a chicken carcass, during the cultivation of which the antibiotic tetracycline was used, was boiled for 30 minutes, as a result, traces of this chemical substance appeared on the broiler muscles, and after the next 30 minutes of cooking, the substance completely passed into the broth.

For reference:

Probably, now no one will tell the meaning of the word “restaurant” other than a place where they eat. But even before the Middle Ages, bones were boiled overnight in French taverns. The masters and masters ate meat and gave the bones to the servants. And from these bones they made a very rich broth, which, on the advice of doctors of that time, was given to wounded soldiers and people exhausted after illness.

In French the verb to restore is restaurant. And the restorative broth is a restaurant. After this, taverns that cooked bones and fed the poor and sick began to be called restaurants. Thus, initially a restaurant is not a place where gourmet food is eaten, but a place where the poor are fed.

From this historical information the following conclusions follow:

1. Bone broth was given to poor people, and it actually restores strength, but if you drink it every day for a long time, then it will do much more harm than good.

2. Bones were boiled and broth was made in those days when there were no animal feeds or antibiotics.

So, the dry residue: it is not advisable to eat soups, but if you really want to and not often, and even from vegetables, then you can.

1. You can cook soups (cabbage soup, borscht) using the second broth. The meat is cut into pieces of 100 grams and placed in cold water. Then bring to a boil and cook for about five minutes. Then this primary broth is drained and a new one is poured cold water, which is brought to a boil, and in which you already finish cooking the meat and prepare the soup.

2. Cook meat or chicken broth. Then it cools, visible fat is removed from it and diluted with water in a ratio of two to one. The so-called weak broth. The content of fat and extractives will be significantly less.

3. You can cook vegetable soup and add separately cooked meat to it.

A couple of recipes:

1. Three radishes on a coarse grater. Place rye crackers or diced and dried bread on a plate. Add greens: parsley, dill, celery, green onions. Mix everything and pour kvass. You can use classic or beet kvass. You can also add beetroot broth or water. Grate horseradish. Add salt to taste.

2. From rare meat you can prepare such a first dish as okroshka. You need to grate the radish, add boiled peeled potatoes, cut into cubes. Add salt and leave for an hour. After an hour, pour kvass or beetroot broth. Add greens.

Soup famous in modern kitchen as a first course, it has a very long history. The first attempts to cook something similar to soup were made back in the Stone Age, but it appeared as an independent dish with all its characteristic features about a hundred years before the beginning of our era. The first people to start cooking real soups were Ancient China and nearby regions. In Europe, the history of soup began approximately 400-500 years ago. By the way, the name “soup” came to us through the French language from Latin: the word “suppa” literally translates as “a piece of bread soaked in broth.”

Probably, most of us in childhood had to hear from our mothers and grandmothers that we should eat the first thing every day, and those who do not eat the first get gastritis. How much truth is there in the “horror stories” of mothers: is soup really indispensable and what will happen if you don’t eat the first courses?

Benefits of first courses

It looks like the majority is on the side of mothers who defend the good reputation of first courses.

Moreover, doctors complain that recently the number of people who eat soups (homemade, not instant-brewed) every day is decreasing every year. Meanwhile, if you regularly consume the former, you can bring a lot of benefits to your body.

Rich chemical composition

Any soup is, first of all, a lot of valuable ingredients. The specificity of preparing first courses allows you to preserve almost all the nutrients contained in vegetables. With different types of heat treatment, the vitamins and minerals contained in raw foods, are lost irretrievably. But not in the case of soups. Even if some components are boiled from vegetables or meat, they still remain in the dish (they turn into a decoction) and we will still use them.

The chemical composition of each soup is unique, as it is determined by the set of products used in cooking. Meanwhile, in most cases, first courses contain a lot of, and, and if at the end of cooking you don’t forget to add greens to the dish, then also is added to the list of nutrients.

Soup with vegetables is an excellent source, indispensable for the smooth functioning of the digestive system. Legumes add complexity to the dish. Meat broths are proteins and, egg soups are B vitamins and a set of essential ones. , cereals, make first courses very satisfying, as they contain a lot of carbohydrates. If you season the first or, it will become a source, if you add cereals, you can increase the amount of vitamin B in the dish several times. Ukha is, of course, phosphorus, and soup from is a whole plate of beta-carotene - a substance essential for eye health . The first dish of tomatoes is a source of lycopene - one of the most powerful, which slows down the aging of the body and prevents most diseases, including cancer. And what’s most interesting is that heat-treated vegetables contain more lycopene than raw vegetables. Tomato soups are especially beneficial for men, as they prevent prostate cancer.

By the way, it is also more useful for our bodies in boiled form, for example, as a component of soup. Researchers found that cooked cabbage contained about 30% more carotenoids than the raw vegetable. Broccoli soup contains a specific substance, sulforaphane, which is scientifically known to prevent breast and intestinal cancer. What is noteworthy is that sulforaphane is not destroyed by high temperature.

As for, this bright vegetable is also best eaten after heat treatment with a small addition of fat (so that the body can absorb fat-soluble vitamin A). For example, it can be stewed with a small amount of oil and added to the broth as a dressing. So the theory that all vegetables are healthier raw is not entirely true: some of them are more valuable as ingredients in hot soup.

High nutritional value with low calorie content

Soups prepared with vegetable broth are rich in nutrients, but at the same time contain very few calories. For example, a 300-gram serving of the former is approximately 80 to 125 kcal. Light vegetable soups are an excellent choice for weight loss. But you just need to add meat, cereals, cream or flour to them to get a more satisfying and rich dish. But this does not mean that people watching their figure should eat only vegetable stews. There are many ways to reduce the first people. For example, cream sauce (made from flour and cream) can be replaced with regular milk. After cooking, the meat broth can be placed in the refrigerator, and then the congealed fat can be collected. For poultry soup, it is better to use skinless meat. These little tricks will allow you to reduce the calorie content of your dish to a minimum, while preserving all the nutrients.

First courses create a feeling of fullness in the stomach, perfectly satisfy hunger, but do not contain extra calories. Soups are also considered ideal solution for individuals wishing to reduce or limit their fat intake. It has been proven that people who regularly eat the former look slimmer than those whose lunch consists exclusively of the latter.

Source of vegetables

Nutritionists recommend eating 5 servings of vegetables and fruits daily (1 serving is approximately 100 g). However, not everyone can adhere to this recommendation. For example, most children do not like salads, and older people often have digestive problems, so they try to avoid raw vegetables. For these categories of people there is nothing better than soup, including creamy consistency. To preserve their nutritional properties as much as possible, vegetables for the first one should be cooked for no more than 15 minutes, preferably covered. By the way, the healthiest soup is freshly prepared: it contains maximum amount nutritional components.

Liquid source

Drinking enough water is critical to overall health. Many people probably know that it is useful to drink about 2 liters of liquid per day. If you can’t meet the quota with water alone, light soups can come to the rescue, because first courses consist of 50-80% liquid.

Keeps you warm in the cold

This advantage of first courses is especially appreciated in autumn and winter time. What could be better after a walk in the cold than a plate of aromatic, rich and, most importantly, hot soup! And we remind you once again: the first course is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, which are simply irreplaceable in the cold seasons.

Refreshing in summer

If in cool weather a bowl of soup is a perfectly acceptable option for lunch, then in summer heat most refuse first courses. But soup is not necessarily hot. There are so-called summer options, which are still beneficial for the body, but do not warm, but on the contrary, create a refreshing effect. Just think of okroshka, gazpacho, kholodniki and cold beetroot pancakes - easy, tasty, nutritious and not hot.

Supports immunity

Cold weakens the immune system, so people who do not eat anything warm in autumn and winter get sick more often. And in 2000, researchers from Nebraska (USA) found confirmation that chicken broths and poultry soups are a natural cold medicine. IN chicken broth Scientists have found several substances that have a beneficial effect on the immune system and have anti-inflammatory properties. Warm chicken soup may even soothe a sore throat caused by the flu or cold. Interestingly, vegetable broths do not have such properties. The perfect recipe immunomodulatory soup, according to scientists, looks like this: onions, carrots, potatoes, parsley.

Hundreds of recipes

There is a joke: if you don’t know what to cook from a vegetable, make soup from it. And this is truly so. You can make soup based on almost any product. Pumpkin, beets, or, and dozens of other options - all of this can be turned into a nutritious and tasty first course. In addition, do not forget about broths from different types meat, fish, seafood. You just need to change the proportions of the ingredients and, based on the same set of products, you can prepare several versions of the first one.

Easy and quick to cook

When experts talk about the benefits of soups, they always mean a dish made from natural ingredients, and not a soup from bags. Making a classic soup doesn't require any special skill. The dish is prepared quickly and very easily. The recipe, as a rule, does not provide for precision in measuring the amount of ingredients, and even the composition of the components can be changed each time according to your taste and mood. So soup is a dish that even a teenager can prepare.

Can the first be harmful?

To be fair, it should be said that not all researchers agree that soup is unconditionally useful for everyone and always. Some experts are confident that you can give up first courses forever - after all, there are cultures in the world where it is not customary to eat soups.

One of the arguments against is the fact that when cooking meat, substances harmful to humans are formed in the broth. And some say that liquid soups wash out gastric juice, and this impairs the process of digesting food. For a long time it was believed that eating soups could protect against gastritis. Today doctors are debunking this myth. According to the new theory, liquid first courses activate the production of stomach acid, which can be dangerous for people with gastric or duodenal ulcers, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the digestive organs, as well as high acidity. But for people with reduced gastric secretion, soups, on the contrary, are useful.

In addition, gastroenterologists remind: it is important for a person to eat a balanced diet. That is, the diet should contain vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, cereals, eggs, dairy and fermented milk products, but in what form these products enter our bodies does not matter.

The healthiest soups

If you cannot imagine your life without first courses, then in order for the soup to be healthy for the body, gastroenterologists recommend following several rules. First, eat warm, not hot or very cold foods. Secondly, doctors do not advise eating very spicy soups or those cooked in fatty broth as a first meal. For meat dishes, it is better to use chicken rather than bones or. Also, doctors are categorically against bouillon cubes, instant soups and seasonings containing chemical additives - such dishes are only harmful digestive system. Experts also do not recommend adding frying for the first time, as they form harmful trans fats.

Soup is a universal dish that can be prepared at any time of the year. The first can look different: vegetable soups, meat, fish, creamy, fruit, hot and cold. Everyone can choose an option to their taste. By and large, it doesn’t matter which soup you prefer, the main thing is that the first one is prepared from fresh and high-quality ingredients.