10 Reasons to Include More Soups in Your Diet

Soups have been the best appetizers till date due to their rich taste and soothing feel. You may have loved soups for their color, texture, and taste but now when this wonder bowl has proven its health benefits globally, there are several other reasons to go for it. If you are not a soup lover or this hot bowl of goodness doesn’t come in your list of comfort food then we have 10 good reasons to make it a comfort food for you! 

image source

1   

     Easy to prepare

Most of the diet watchers deviate from their designated diet because they find it difficult to cook those diet friendly delicacies all the time. Soup makes this easy! You can prepare it in just few minutes and even without keeping a close watch. All you need to do is toss together the ingredients of your choice and let it simmer on the gas stove or in the microwave to get the blend of your choice. Including more soups in your diet would take very less time for cooking and preparation while adhering to the diet recommendations.

    Keeps you fuller without adding more calories

Soups are tasty and you can have them to your heart’s content. They are not just water but have the combination of fluid and nutrition that act as the complete diet. There is no need to use external fats while cooking the soup and the ingredients used are natural and fresh that make it very low on calories. Sipping on soup would be guilt-free indulgence as you can stay fuller for long as it stretches the stomach without adding more calories to your diet. Having soups at the beginning of each meal would control your food intake substantially.

   

     Quick on digestion

Your digestive system will get rest for some time when you sip the soup. Soups are normally blended to a liquid consistency that makes them easy to digest. The fruits, vegetables, nuts, or cereals used in preparing the soup are all cooked into lighter and easy to digest form. You can have it even when you feel like eating nothing as this nutritious bowl would make its place in your tummy without making you bloated till throat.

     Increases the veggie tolerance

Developing taste buds for certain foods is important from very childhood as this will go a long way in your life. According to one research carried out in Netherlands, toddlers who were given soups for seven weeks as a part of their early eating habits had developed more tolerance towards all kinds of vegetables later. Soups would slowly work into healthy eating habit that would stay with your toddler for the lifetime.

   

     Brings down all your pains and aches

Chicken soup is considered to be the comfort food when you are suffering from viral illness or cold and flu. This soup would not cure your illness but would surely ease out the symptoms. This soup is anti-inflammatory and have cleansing properties that would clear up the mucus. It would also soothe the inflammation of joints that may usually accompany all types of viral infections.

   

     High on fiber, low on fat!

image source

You can have the high fiber and low fat recipe for food by avoiding cream based soups. The soups that are usually prepared from veggies, lean meat, and beans would have sufficient fibers to keep your system clean. Your choice of soup should depend on the health quotient of the ingredients more than the taste as the creamy bowl of soup would have lots of fats and less nutrition while the simple broth would have much on offer. Soups are even better than juices as the pulp is strained when the juice is prepared from vegetable or fruit. Lots of fibers are lost when the vegetable juices are extracted and the pulp is discarded. Soup brings along the juices and pulp in single bowl that makes it the high fiber and nutrition rich option.

   

     Better shelf life

This comfort food adds to your comfort even more as it has better shelf life. You can prepare it in multiple batches to save cooking time. The leftover soup can be stored for longer time after freezing. Next time you have the food craving and all you need to do is take out the frozen soup, thaw it in microwave and it is ready to sip.

Retains vitamins and minerals

Cooking of soup involves healthier cooking method compared to other food preparations. When the veggies are boiled, the vitamins and minerals would get lost in the water that is used as the medium for boiling. Some of the key nutrients will also get lost in the steaming liquid when you opt for the steaming as cooking technique. In case of soup preparation, vitamins and minerals are not lost as the cooking liquid or the broth that is rich in nutrient is also the part of soup. There would be minimal loss of nutrients in cooking and hence it will work as the wholesome food.

Lot of variations to try

Soups don’t depend on any standard recipe as you can conveniently mix and match the ingredients as per the availability and liking. Replacing broccoli with cauliflower or adding pasta instead of noodles would not affect the overall taste or health quotient of the soup. The recipes can be changed as per your convenience as soup is not just comfort food in terms of taste but it is also super comforting in terms of cooking. You can forget it on the stove and still be sure of the perfect taste. Soups are magical but easy to create!

Soups are affordable

As stated earlier, soups can have the ingredients as per the availability and you don’t need to look out for costly ingredients to create your recipe. They make the best appetizers for a party or when you have handful of guests. They are affordable and easy to assemble.

Soups have many reasons to be the part of any diet but the most convincing reason is the TASTE that is fresh, comforting, and appealing to all taste buds.