Many people enjoy drinking soup, right? Drinking soup can moisten the throat, cleanse the digestive system, and help eliminate toxins. However, many people have extreme views, believing that the soup contains the best nutrients and that the meat cooked in it has lost most of its nutrition, so it's better to discard it. So, when drinking soup, should you really throw away the meat?
Chinese Yam and Chicken Soup
Which is more nutritious, the soup or the meat?
Although the meat has been simmered into the soup, if you want to supplement protein, it's better to eat the meat, because the protein content in the soup is only 7%-10% of that in the meat.
For people who are malnourished, they should eat both the meat and the soup. This is especially true for people recovering from a serious illness; drinking only soup is not enough, as most of the protein is still in the meat. For people with poor digestion, it's better to focus on drinking the soup. Additionally, purine substances in meat soup should be avoided by people with gout and high uric acid.
What nutrients are actually in the soup?
Clear broths from fish and meat contain small amounts of soluble protein, various amino acids, umami peptides, creatine, carnitine, and other small nitrogen-containing molecules. They also contain potassium and soluble B vitamins, making them very easily utilized by the body. In fact, the nutritional value of the soup is not necessarily higher than that of the meat. However, for most people, the main purpose of drinking soup is not to get the protein and other nutrients, but to enjoy the flavor. Therefore, healthy adults with normal digestion don't need to throw away the "meat bits" in the soup.
Light soup is more suitable for the elderly and the weak
Light soup contains many soluble nitrogen-containing substances. These umami molecules can stimulate appetite and promote the secretion of digestive fluids. For those who are weak, have poor digestion, or lack appetite, drinking some light soup can quickly supplement nutrients like amino acids and B vitamins. For patients who can only consume liquid or semi-liquid foods, adding clear chicken broth to congee is more nutritious than eating plain congee. However, it's important to note that for the weak, clear soup with the fat skimmed off is more suitable than creamy white soup or oily soup. Because their digestive systems are weak, the large amount of saturated fat in the meat is hard to digest. Creamy soup contains emulsified fat globules, and soup with floating oil contains a large amount of unemulsified fat, which is a burden for those with poor digestion.
So, whether it's the soup or the meat, both are beneficial for your health. Besides, it's quite wasteful to throw away the meat after stewing it, isn't it?
Chicken soup