"Soup before meals is better than any prescription," this saying seems plausible. However, from the perspective of modern nutrition, advocating for "drinking more soup" is not necessarily beneficial to health.
Chinese people place great importance on "nourishment" or "bu." Traditional Chinese Medicine developed a theory called the "tonifying theory," which includes specific methods like "nourishing yin," "supplementing yang," and "tonifying the spleen and stomach." Besides medicinal tonification, the public also values "dietary therapy," and chicken soup and bone broth are the most cherished and celebrated "tonifying soups" among the people. This is not surprising. In the past, due to low productivity, food scarcity, and difficulties in food preservation, the average person consumed far less meat and fats than they do now. This led to absolute or relative deficiencies in protein and fat intake, resulting in a higher prevalence of physical weakness and malnutrition. A weak constitution and anemia not only predispose one to many diseases but can also shorten one's lifespan. Many people, through timely dietary therapy, can effectively improve their constitution and prevent certain diseases. Therefore, chicken soup and bone broth naturally became popular and excellent choices for tonification.
However, living conditions have improved now, and chicken, duck, fish, and meat are no longer "luxuries" reserved only for festivals.
For modern people who suffer from "excessive nutrition" or "nutritional imbalance," unless their constitution is truly so "deficient" that it requires "tonification," it is advisable to drink less chicken soup and bone broth.
The reason is that although stewed chicken is delicious and rich in protein, the broth tends to be high in salt, saturated fat, and cholesterol. Even if you eat the chicken without the skin, the fat from the skin has already dissolved into the broth. Drinking chicken soup can lead to excessive intake of animal fat, which not only increases the burden on the digestive system, potentially leading to digestive diseases, but can also raise blood lipid levels, making one prone to coronary heart disease. For patients with chronic cholecystitis, drinking very rich chicken soup can easily trigger an acute attack, so excessive consumption is discouraged.
Bone broth is typically made by simmering large pork bones, meat bones, or fish bones for a long time. It is rich in "chondroitin" and "collagen," which can enhance the body's absorption and supplementation of calcium. However, bone broth is high in fat and cholesterol, especially the marrow, which has an exceptionally high cholesterol content. If seafood, mushrooms, or animal organs are added to the broth and simmered for a long time, the purine content becomes very high. After being metabolized by the liver, this produces a large amount of nitric acid, which is harmful to the body. Furthermore, if green vegetables are added to the broth and cooked for too long, the potassium and oxalate levels in the soup will be high. Drinking this can be detrimental to the health of patients with chronic kidney disease and can also easily lead to kidney stones. In summary, chicken soup and bone broth should be consumed in moderation. They are suitable for those who are genuinely weak, but it is not advisable to drink broth that has been cooked for too long or is too concentrated. Additionally, when making chicken or bone broth, it is best not to add other animal organs, and one should avoid drinking broth that has been repeatedly and over-simmered.