Meat broth contains less than 10% of the nutrients; it is better to eat more meat than to drink too much broth.

Parents always say, drink more soup, all the nutrition is in the soup. In fact, the vast majority of the nutrition in meat soup is still in the meat itself, and the best choice is to eat both the meat and the soup. Let's correct this misconception together!

Chinese Yam and Red Date Chicken Soup

Less than 10% of the nutrition is in the soup

When meat and other ingredients are simmered for a long time, their nutrients enter the soup, so drinking the soup is more nutritious than eating the meat. This is incorrect. Besides water, all the nutrients in the soup come from the ingredients. The ingredients contain both water-soluble and non-water-soluble nutrients. Water-soluble vitamins and minerals partially enter the soup, but 90% to 93% of the non-water-soluble protein remains in the meat, accounting for less than 10% of the total in the soup.

Don't overconsume meat soup

Stewing soup for too long can easily lead to protein denaturation, and it's best to choose organic meat and vegetables for the stew. Meat soup should also not be consumed in excess. Because meat contains a lot of fat, which dissolves in the hot soup during cooking, drinking too much soup can easily increase blood lipids, which is detrimental to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. If people with high blood lipids need to supplement protein, they can replace meat soup with tofu and vegetable soup. At the same time, meat soup is high in purines, so patients with gout due to abnormal purine metabolism and those with elevated blood uric acid acid should consume it with caution.

Benefits of common ingredients in meat soup

From the perspective of Chinese health preservation, pork nourishes the kidneys and blood, and moistens yin to dryness. Drinking pork soup can quickly replenish fluids and relieve irritability, dry cough, constipation, and difficult labor caused by insufficient fluids. Beef has the effects of strengthening the spleen and stomach, benefiting qi and blood, strengthening muscles and bones, and reducing edema. Beef stewed with red dates helps muscle growth and promotes wound healing. Mutton is warming to the spleen and stomach, used to treat nausea, emaciation, and aversion to cold caused by deficiency and cold in the spleen and stomach; it warms the liver and kidneys, used to treat symptoms like soreness, coldness, and pain in the lower back and knees caused by kidney deficiency; it nourishes blood and warms the meridians, used to treat lower abdominal cold pain caused by blood deficiency and coldness after childbirth. Chicken can warm the middle jiao and replenish qi, and nourish the essence and marrow. It is used to treat conditions like emaciation from deficiency, dizziness, palpitations, irregular menstruation, insufficient lactation after childbirth, thirst, edema, frequent urination, seminal emission, and tinnitus.