soups

Question
Hi Tom

I am a big big fan of soups and stews - mainly a load of vegetables with a base such as oxtail or osso busco as flavour, or minestrone.  Because my soups are in large batches, I tend to have 2-3 days' worth of dinner!  I always thought this was healthy because of all the veggies.

However, someone recently told me that soups were not nutritious at all.  They said this was because any vegetables in it had all their nutrients 'boiled out' (hence their yellowish rather than green colour, etc).  They also said that fatty meats like osso bucco / oxtail would lead to cholesteral problems.  

Could you please advise on this?  I'm quite dismayed!

Answer
Hi Kaying,

It's not true that soups are not nutritious. It depends what kind of food you put into it. Yes, the enzymes are destroyed when you heat food over 118 degrees, but that doesn't make soups any less nutritious than cooked greens in a skillet. The nutrients get "boiled out" into the broth itself, which is why soup broth is used all over the world to get nutrition into people who can't eat solid food for whatever reason.

In a perfect world, you would eat all your produce raw but very few people follow a raw vegan diet like that.

I would highly recommend not taking nutritional advice from friends and associates who don't know what they're talking about. Good for your for researching more!

If you're eating lots of veggies in your soups, I would keep doing what you're doing. It's far better to eat veggies in soup than not eat them at all.

I hope that helps!

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Wishing you wellness,
Tom

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