Winter has always been considered the best season in China for "nourishing the body and replenishing health." Besides medicinal supplements, more people advocate for "dietary therapy" to ward off cold and improve their constitution, and "draining soup for nourishment" is the most common form of dietary therapy. However, drinking soup is not a simple matter. Many people are diligent in making soup but are unaware of the many taboos associated with it, nor do they know what kind of soup is suitable for them.
There are rules to follow when drinking soup. Don't assume that just because soup is nutritious, you're all set, and don't think every kind of soup is suitable for everyone. Unsuitable soups are not only unbeneficial to the body but can also trigger potential health crises. For drinking soup to truly strengthen the body and provide nourishment, you should first know which soups are best to avoid.
Avoid single-ingredient soups. Meat and vegetable pairings should be balanced.
Some people, in order to keep the soup pure and delicious, prefer to use a single ingredient to make meat soups, such as clear hen broth, pork rib soup, or fish soup, or to make single vegetable or mushroom soups, such as cabbage soup, radish soup, or winter melon soup. However, such single-ingredient soups often have an imbalance of nutrients, and experts advise drinking them as little as possible.
Regularly drinking single-ingredient meat soups can not only easily make one's palate tired, but the high protein and high fat content can also easily lead to nutritional surplus and internal dryness and "heatiness." As for single vegetable or mushroom soups, they have a heat-clearing effect and generally have little negative impact on the body. However, if you frequently drink these vegetarian soups, it can enhance the body's diuretic function, and frequent urination might expel the body's essential fluids, causing a "fluid depletion" phenomenon and an imbalance of yin and yang.
Health Reminder: Winter is dry, and a balanced mix of meat and vegetables helps the body maintain a proper balance of cold and heat and ensures nutritional balance. Using a mix of several animal and plant-based foods to cook soup not only makes the soup more delicious but also provides more comprehensive and balanced nutrients, which can complement each other.
Avoid greasy soups. Guard against high blood lipids and gout.
Many people, to ensure the soup's nutritional value, like to use high-fat, high-calorie meats as the main ingredients for soup, such as old hens, fatty ducks, or pig's trotters. Some even add high-fat animal organs to the soup, hoping to achieve the best "health-replenishing" effect.
Experts point out that while such high-fat meat soups are indeed rich in nutrients and have certain tonic effects, the fat, cholesterol, and purine content in the soup are very high. This not only increases the burden on the gastrointestinal tract and may lead to digestive diseases but also easily causes obesity, elevated blood lipids, is detrimental to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, and can worsen the condition of gout patients and those with high uric acid.
Health Reminder: It's cold in winter, and people tend to "eat more and move less," making it difficult to digest high-fat foods. Individuals should consume greasy meat soups in moderation. It's best to skim off excess fat during the stewing process and also skim off the surface oil when drinking, consuming the remaining clear soup. Obese individuals, the elderly, people with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, gout patients, and those with high blood uric acid concentration should especially avoid high-fat meat soups. These special groups can choose low-fat meats like lean meat, rabbit meat, fresh fish, or dried shrimp as soup ingredients.
Avoid soups with unclear medicinal properties. Be cautious of conflicting internal conditions.
Nowadays, many people like to add various medicinal herbs to their soups, believing that such soups can not only nourish the body but also help treat illnesses. However, the medicinal herbs used in soups have properties of being "cold" or "hot." If one is ignorant of their medicinal properties and drinks them without discernment, it is easy to cause a conflict between "deficiency" and "excess," which is harmful to the body.
Experts point out that herbs commonly used in soups now include wild mushrooms, lingzhi, ginseng, angelica, cordyceps, and gastrodia, among a rich and diverse variety. When making soup at home, due to a relative lack of knowledge about medicinal properties, it may not be possible to fully consider whether every family member's constitution is suitable. Often, a pot of nourishing soup is shared by the whole family, completely unaware of the potential serious harm that blind nourishment can bring.
Health Reminder: There is a great deal of knowledge in medicinal diet therapy; it's not the case that the more expensive the Chinese herbs, the better the nourishing effect. Individuals should try to avoid drinking soups with unclear medicinal properties, especially those with chronic diseases, who must never blindly nourish themselves without understanding their "cold" or "hot" and "deficient" or "excess" conditions. It is best to choose medicinal herbs for home-cooked soups under the guidance of a doctor, distinguishing between "cold" and "hot" and "deficient" and "excess" to truly benefit one's health.
Avoid soups that have been simmered for too long. The cooking time for soup matters.
Many people emphasize "simmering slowly" when making soup, believing that the longer the soup simmers, the more nutrients are extracted from animal bones and the more delicious the flavor becomes. In fact, this is a misconception that needs to be corrected. In reality, simmering soup for too long not only destroys the soup's nutrients but can also be detrimental to human health.
Experts point out that vitamin C in green vegetables is extremely easily destroyed by heat and is almost depleted after about 20 minutes of cooking. If the soup is simmered for too long, the potassium content and oxalate levels in vegetables will also increase, which is particularly unhealthy for patients with chronic kidney disease and may lead to conditions like kidney stones. At the same time, the calcium in animal bones is not easily broken down. Long simmering not only fails to dissolve the calcium from the bones but also destroys the protein in the bones and increases the purine content, which can easily lead to hyperuricemia or a gout attack.
Health Reminder: Both the time and heat control for making soup are important. Soups that have been simmered for too long should not be consumed, and gout patients and those with elevated blood uric acid should be particularly vigilant. Generally, after bringing to a boil, simmering fish soup over low heat for about half an hour, and chicken or pork rib soup for about an hour, is appropriate. The best time for simmering ginseng soup is around 40 minutes.
Avoid soup that is too hot. A temperature below 50°C is more suitable.
Some people prefer to drink piping hot soup, believing that the nutrients in the soup are not lost right after it's cooked and the flavor is even more delicious. However, such a dietary habit can not only cause scalds to the oral mucosa but may also damage the digestive tract and even lead to esophageal cancer.
Experts point out that the oral cavity, esophagus, and stomach mucosa can only withstand temperatures of about 60°C at most. Exceeding this temperature can easily cause mucosal burns. Although the body has a self-repair function after being burned, repeated damage can easily lead to malignant changes in the upper digestive tract mucosa and trigger esophageal cancer. Related clinical research has found that people who enjoy drinking very hot soup are a high-risk group for esophageal cancer.
Health Reminder: In the cold winter, a bowl of piping hot soup can usually help a person drive away the severe cold. But remember that soup that is too hot is more harmful than beneficial. Generally, it is more suitable for most people to drink soup at a temperature below 50°C during a meal.