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. Let's start with the benefits of soups for losing weight and maintaining weight.

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 large amount 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 die 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, in the cultivation of which the antibiotic tetracycline was used, was cooked for 30 minutes, as a result, traces of this chemical substance appeared on the muscles of the broiler, and after the next 30 minutes of cooking, the substance completely passed into bouillon.

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 background 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 new cold water is poured in, which is brought to a boil, and in which you cook 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.

Since childhood, we have been told that we need to eat soup every day, and this habit is firmly rooted in our minds. Many people simply cannot imagine their lunch without the first liquid course. Are soups really that useful or is their importance exaggerated?

What are the benefits of soup?

Vegetable soups improve health. For many, it is difficult to eat the daily amount of vegetables, which exceeds 500 g, and by consuming soup, you can make up for the deficiency of vegetables in the diet;
The benefits of soup for the gastrointestinal tract are invaluable - it is easily absorbed, digested, increases vitality without loading the digestive system. Broths are recommended for almost all patients to restore the tone of a weakened body;
The soup is cooked using water, which means that the lack of fluid in the body is replenished. It fills the stomach and allows you to feel quickly full;
saturates the body with fiber, which is found in vegetables, which helps it get rid of toxins, toxic elements and harmful compounds;
The first course helps you lose weight. If you eat a bowl of soup every day for lunch, combining this with an active lifestyle, the weight loss process will significantly speed up. Entrees contain enough carbohydrates to keep you feeling energized and contain virtually no fat.

Warm or cold soups: which is healthier?

Both cold and warm soups benefit our body. There are many recipes for cold first courses that are perfectly refreshing in the summer heat and have excellent taste.

Warm first courses will warm you up during the cold season and are perfectly digested by the gastrointestinal tract. The temperature of warm soup should be close to human body temperature. The only caveat is that you should not eat too hot dishes. They burn the esophagus and can provoke the development of many diseases, including cancer.

What happens if you don't eat soup?

If you refuse to eat soups, you can cause digestive problems. In people who eat soup, the production of gastric juice and bile increases, which greatly facilitates the process of digesting protein and fats, which then enter the body.

Refusal of soups can provoke difficult digestion, accumulation of toxins in the body, and deterioration of intestinal motility. People who do not eat soups are much more likely to experience constipation.

It is useful for small children and those babies who have suffered from an illness to eat puree soups with a delicate, soft texture that do not burden the digestive tract and do not have a mechanical effect on it.

Liquid meals are useful for almost everyone, in the absence of contraindications. Properly cooked soup will benefit children and adults during the period of rehabilitation after illness. If the soup is made with lean dietary poultry meat, it will strengthen the immune system and increase its resistance to.

Contraindications and harm

Soups contain a lot of liquid. Large amounts of fluid should be avoided in case of hypertension, renal and heart failure, edema, ascites - when free fluid accumulates in the abdominal cavity. Soups are not contraindicated for this category of people, but they should not be abused, and it is advisable not to use salt during the cooking process.

Soup can be harmful to the body if it is cooked in fatty meat broth or if fried in vegetable oil is added to it. Frying in oil produces carcinogenic substances, and when using meat, especially store-bought meat, it is necessary to drain the first broth and cook the dish in the second.

The meat releases to the water all the harmful substances it contains, antibiotics and other additives that the animal was fed during the growing process. Therefore, after 20 minutes of cooking, the first water must be drained, and then the cooking process must be continued with new, clean water.

Fatty soups with meat broth should not be consumed by people suffering from atherosclerosis and diseases of the cardiovascular system. Such dishes contain large amounts of cholesterol, which leads to deterioration of blood vessels.

If you have protein metabolism disorders and gout, you should not eat soups with legumes, mushrooms or protein broths.

If you like soups and have no contraindications, eat them with pleasure, your body will thank you with good health.

Soup can be called the head of our dinner table; since childhood, we have become accustomed to the fact that during the daytime meals should begin with it - a rich, aromatic liquid dish. Today, too, many of us cannot imagine a day without hot soup, because from a very early age we were taught that the “first thing” must be eaten, otherwise we will have neither strength nor health. However, soup has opponents who believe that it is a harmful dish that can ruin our stomach. So is it healthy to eat soup every day, or can such a habit harm our health? Let's figure it out together.

Soup is rightfully the “first” dish

Soups are a whole group of liquid dishes, the main feature of which is that more than half of it consists of liquid. There are probably millions of recipes for different soups. Many countries have their own soup, which has become a symbol of national cuisine. We have cabbage soup and borscht, the French have onion soup, the Japanese have miso soup that is especially popular today, the list goes on for a long time.

Each type of liquid hot dish has many variations; there are several hundred recipes for borscht alone. Moreover, for example, Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian borscht can be very different from each other, fueling disputes in interethnic families. After all, each spouse has his own, national, understanding of what this first course should be. For example, in the Russian version of borscht there should be no lard, while in the Belarusian and Ukrainian versions this component occupies an important place in the recipe. And a Belarusian can ask a Russian why you put cabbage in borscht.

Another interesting fact is that soup does not have to be a hot dish; there are many recipes for preparing a cold dish. Each of these soups has its own health benefits and harms; a cold dish will retain more vitamins, but the hot version is considered to be healthier for the stomach. However, this depends on the specific recipe.

The benefits of the first dish

Soup is a great opportunity to enrich our diet with vegetables. Once we roughly count the number of different vegetables indicated in the recipe, we are convinced that this is truly a magical elixir.

It is believed that in order to fulfill the daily requirement for eating vegetables, you can “wrap up” just a couple of bowls of aromatic soup. Therefore, light vegetable soups are considered especially useful.

We can quickly satisfy our hunger with soup, because in order to eat a liquid dish, we don’t need to chew it well. Moreover, the nutritious liquid of soup, especially hot, fills the stomach, dulling the feeling of hunger. If you want to eat something tasty, but not very healthy, eat a bowl of soup first. This way, there will be less “room” in the stomach for that same “tasty, but not the healthiest” dish.

This also explains the benefits of soup for weight loss - we eat up in smaller portions, given the low calorie content of a liquid dish with high nutritional value. Of course, if we are not talking about the notorious lard borscht with donuts. There are even many diets based on various light, mostly vegetable, soups. Such dishes not only satiate us, but also rid the body of waste and toxins. Also, along with soups, our body receives fiber, which is necessary for weight loss and overall health.

The benefit of soup lies in its easy digestibility by the body. The soup contains many useful substances, is easily digestible and does not require much effort to eat it. Therefore, it is actively used during colds; it helps the body, exhausted by viruses, to recover and receive the necessary vitamins. However, the soup should be low-fat and light, so that the body does not have to spend a lot of effort and energy on digesting it, which is needed to resist infections. The dish warms the body well, which is especially valuable in the cold months.

Many soups have a good effect on metabolism and help you lose weight. Pea soups are especially useful in this sense, despite their relatively high calorie content.

Are there any benefits to soups for children?

The benefits of soups for children are sometimes questioned. This is partly surprising, because from childhood we are taught that the first thing must be included in the diet. However, some modern scientists question the usefulness of the dish, arguing that along with beneficial substances, dangerous components can also penetrate into the child’s body. To ensure that as little harmful substances as possible get into the dish, you should drain the first water of the meat broth. After the meat has cooked for a few minutes, the water needs to be drained and new water added. And only then cook the soup itself.

But kids still need to eat soup, the majority agrees on this opinion. You just need to carefully monitor the quality of the added products and prepare mainly vegetable first courses. If you use meat, then chicken or veal. You should not add bouillon cubes, a lot of seasonings, or garlic to soups for children.

Soup has the same effect on a child’s body as on an adult: it improves digestion, is easily digestible, and helps to gain strength. And puree soups are recommended to be given to small children as the first complementary food. By the way, the first course is with pureed vegetables, and an older child will eat it with more pleasure than ordinary soup, in which, sometimes, unappetizing pieces of vegetables float.

Is soup good for the stomach?

A person with a number of stomach diseases should not eat raw vegetables, they can harm the organ. But you also need to get the necessary vitamins and microelements. Soups help out; boiled and stewed vegetables are not harmful to the stomach.

The benefits of soup for the stomach cannot be overestimated - it stimulates our digestion. First courses promote the production of gastric juice, thereby preparing the gastrointestinal tract for digestion. However, for the soup to benefit a sore stomach, it must be prepared correctly. We will tell you exactly how below.

Soups made with low-fat meat broth are especially beneficial for digestion. Puree soups are useful for stomach diseases, but you need to select a cooking recipe in accordance with your disease. Due to their consistency, they envelop the gastric mucosa, thereby preventing contact of hydrochloric acid with its walls. But you need to use only those vegetables that can be consumed by a person with a sick stomach.

For example, those who have inflammation of the gastric mucosa should not eat beetroot soups. Pumpkin is a good ingredient; it is rich in nutrients and does not harm the stomach.

What soup is the healthiest for the stomach? There is no definite answer to this question, since much depends on the condition of the stomach itself, existing gastrointestinal diseases and other diseases. For example, a soup that is good for a healthy stomach can have a negative effect on a diseased organ, even leading to an exacerbation of diseases.

Healthy soups for the stomach:

Cream soups
Slimy soups prepared with the addition of cereals with a viscous consistency - rolled oats, rice, etc. Soups are prepared based on vegetables and lean meat broth
Dairy with cereals, with the exception of barley and millet. It is necessary to dilute milk with water in a ratio of 1 to 1

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Harmful properties of soups

Yes, there are claims that soups can be harmful to our health, or that they are not as beneficial as we think. Some claim that 70% of vitamins and minerals are destroyed during cooking and do not go into the broth. But harmful substances get there.

The statement is partially true, but not absolutely all vitamins are destroyed during the cooking process. Vitamin C is destroyed almost completely under the influence of high temperatures. But many B vitamins, vitamins A, E, D, PP are resistant to high temperatures. They are destroyed, but partially, and approximately 70% of the original amount remains in the soup. Fiber is also destroyed slightly during cooking.

Another statement about the dangers of soup is more true: various antibiotics and hormonal drugs that were “fed” to the animal end up in almost their entire composition in the broth. But this can also be avoided: the first water must be brought to a boil and drained, adding new water.

The first hot dishes are harmful to our body due to their high fat content, of course, if we are talking about meat soup. In order not to harm your health and figure, cook non-rich dishes.

How to make healthy soups

To include soup in your diet without fear of harming your health, you need to follow a number of rules when preparing:

Prepare meat soups from young animals
Choose fresh, undamaged food
Use lean meat and fish
Vegetables need to be washed well before cooking, but do not soak in water.
Don’t forget to drain the first broth, which we already talked about
It is better to first cook the broth with vegetables, and then add meat there, and not do the opposite
When cooking, it is important to consider what foods can be eaten by people with certain diseases

Should you eat soup every day?

No matter how many battles there are over the harms and benefits of soup, it is recommended to eat it regularly. Naturally, it will bring benefits if you prepare the first dish correctly, following the above recommendations. But you cannot replace solid food with soup, especially for a long time. This can lead to a number of diseases and problems, including lazy bowel syndrome and or dental problems. If the diet is replete with soft foods that hardly require chewing, the gums weaken, not receiving the necessary daily chewing “charge.” In the long term, this can even lead to tooth loss. However, this applies not only to soups.

So is it harmful to not eat soup at all? It is believed that soup, at least not every day, should be present in our diet. For example, soups are very useful for gastritis. While “gastratics” generally have a relatively meager diet, properly cooked soup is a real helper.

For most Russians, “soup” and “lunch” are synonymous. From early childhood, in the family, kindergarten, and at school, we are taught that we cannot live without soup. “If you don’t eat the soup, you’ll spoil your stomach - then you’ll regret not listening to me!” - my mother used to say when I, little, refused the obligatory first.

And recently I heard the phrase: “their child did not eat properly, did not get “hot” food, and therefore he was diagnosed with gastritis.” Maybe there really are some irreplaceable ingredients in soups?

Those interested in proper nutrition will be interested to know what doctors and nutritionists think about the cult of soups. Soviet myth or the only possible option for healthy eating? The answer is in our article.

The benefits and harms of soups

Soups in themselves are no more harmful or healthier than other healthy foods, which is confirmed by the experience of peoples for whom the absence of first courses on the menu does not prevent them from eating healthy food and not suffering from diseases of the digestive system.

However, what is good in China, the USA or Australia is not always suitable for Russian conditions. Soup is an excellent food in the cold season, which warms you up and quickly restores your energy levels. There are other reasons why it deserves to be on our table.

But not everything is so rosy. The benefits of constant consumption of soups seem dubious to doctors, and they are forced to debunk many myths associated with them.

Only you can decide for yourself whether to eat soup for lunch. But one thing is certain: the idea that you have to eat it every day is an old Soviet myth.

Today, experts do not urge Russians to completely exclude soups from their menus, but they recommend being more careful when choosing recipes. It's better to prefer dietary vegetable soup, and avoid strong, rich, fatty meat broths and soups based on them.

Neighbor Baba Zina is already well past her age... The secret of vigor is in the soup that she has been preparing for 17 years! All the ingredients in the detox soup are very healthy, and a set of Ayurvedic spices will give it an unforgettable taste and piquancy. Editorial "So simple!" will tell you how to cook this culinary miracle.

The first soup recipe was discovered back in the 4th century in a Greek cookbook. It consisted of wheat, olive oil, minced meat, cattle brains and wine. Since then, almost every nation has had its own soups: in England they are made from beef tails, in Italy they prepare minestrone and gazpacho, in France - onion soup, in India - chicken curry, and in Russia - borscht, cabbage soup and okroshka. Which ones are useful and which ones are not so useful? Let's figure it out.

Why did humanity fall in love with soups so much?

Because this is a simple and cheap way to fill your stomach and compensate for fluid loss. In difficult times, all available products were used: they were simply thrown into boiling water, and the soup was obtained. However, not all recipes turned out to be useful. If you have problems with the gastrointestinal tract, doctors do not recommend eating sour cabbage soup, rassolnik, solyanka and fatty borscht. Such dishes increase acidity.

Which soups are definitely healthy?

Here are 4 dishes that will not cause aggravation, but, on the contrary, will help the stomach:

1. Potato soup

All cream and puree soups facilitate digestion due to their soft texture. However, some are afraid of potatoes because of their calorie content. 100 grams of boiled potatoes contain only 80 calories. For comparison, there are 110 of them in the same amount of buckwheat. In addition, this vegetable is full of useful substances:

potassium is an essential nutrient for the heart;
starch lowers cholesterol levels;
B vitamins help delay the development of Alzheimer's disease. Scientists from Oxford University have proven that these vitamins control homocysteine levels. It is its high content in the blood that causes the disease;
sodium maintains acid-base balance;
Phosphorus is essential for bones, teeth and nerve cells.

2. Broccoli soup

Not everyone loves this vegetable. However, it’s worth taking a closer look at broccoli, if only because of its beneficial properties:

Strengthens the immune system thanks to tripeptide glutathione. This substance helps cells recover;
Improves digestion and activates metabolism due to its high fiber content;
Nourishes skin with collagen:
Rich in vitamin C - this vitamin promotes iron absorption, protects against infections and restores cells;
Ensures healthy hair and improves immune system function thanks to vitamin A;
Strengthens bone tissue thanks to calcium;
Protects the eyes from cataracts and other diseases due to the important active substance - lutein.

In 2014, Time magazine included broccoli in its list of anti-aging foods.

3. Pumpkin soup

This dish is included in the list of the best soups due to its high beta-carotene content. In the human body it is converted into vitamin A - the most important for vision. Pumpkin also helps improve liver function due to the fact that it contains:

Iron. This element increases hemoglobin production and helps the body fight bacteria. It is also responsible for the production of red blood cells - thanks to these cells, the body is saturated with oxygen;
Magnesium supports the functioning of the nervous system and prevents the formation of stones in the gall and bladder;
Potassium strengthens the walls of blood vessels and reduces swelling.

4. Pho Bo

The most famous dish of Vietnamese cuisine was invented by street vendors at the beginning of the 20th century. One serving of this soup contains many nutrients:

6 grams of fat, 2 of which are saturated. And this is 8% of the daily value, according to the recommendations of the American Heart Association;
20% daily iron requirement;
10% of the vitamin C norm;
4% Daily Value of Vitamin A;
26% sodium normal. This element maintains water-salt balance in cells, muscle and kidney function.

However, a large amount of salt in soup can lead to increased blood pressure and provoke cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, doctors advise eating it no more than once a week.

What if I don't like soup?

Then don't torture yourself. The main ingredients of soups - vegetables and meat - are healthy regardless of whether they are contained in the soup or not. Meat is rich in protein, carrots are known for their high content of beta-carotene, tomatoes contain potassium, peppers are the leader in the amount of vitamin C, cabbage has a lot of vitamin K. And broth is just liquid. Therefore, eating “first” is desirable, but not at all necessary.

You can find out how Pho Bo soup helps the body from the story