Healthy Soup Drinking Mistakes that Are Actually Harmful
Introduction: Drinking soup has many benefits for the human body. However, some people believe that drinking soup is merely a personal habit with no particular science to it. This is not the case. There are quite a few misconceptions about drinking soup, which we will now address one by one!
Mistake One: Eating Soup with Rice
When we chew food, it's not just to break it down for swallowing. More importantly, saliva moistens the food. Saliva is produced through continuous chewing and contains many digestive enzymes that aid in digestion and absorption, which is very beneficial for health. With soup-soaked rice, the rice becomes soft, so it can be swallowed without much chewing. As a result, the food often enters the stomach without going through the digestive process of saliva, placing a heavier burden on the stomach's digestion. Over time, this can easily lead to stomach discomfort.
Mistake Two: Drinking Soup and Discarding the "Sediment"
Experiments have shown that after simmering ingredients high in protein, such as fish, chicken, or beef, for six hours, the soup may look very rich, but the protein dissolution rate is only 6%-15%. This means that over 85% of the protein remains in the "sediment." In other words, no matter how long you simmer the soup, the nutrients from the meat do not completely dissolve into it. Therefore, you should still eat an appropriate amount of meat after drinking the soup.
Mistake Three: Liking to Drink Freshly Cooked, Very Hot Soup
Freshly cooked soup is often very hot, yet many people prefer to drink it this way, believing it is more warming for the stomach and body. In reality, the human mouth, esophagus, and stomach lining can only withstand temperatures up to 60°C. Temperatures above this can cause burns to the mucous membranes and even lead to malignant changes in the digestive tract mucosa. Therefore, soup at a temperature below 50°C is more suitable.
Mistake Four: Drinking Soup Only After a Meal
This is an unhealthy eating habit. The soup consumed at the end will dilute the chyme, which has already been well-mixed with digestive juices, inevitably affecting the digestion and absorption of food. The correct way is to drink a few sips of soup before the meal to lubricate the mouth and esophagus, reducing the irritating effect of dry, hard foods on the digestive tract mucosa and promoting the secretion of digestive glands to stimulate the appetite. Drinking soup in moderation during the meal also helps to mix the food with the digestive juices.
Mistake Five: Preferring "Single-Flavor" Soups
The nutrients in any single food are not comprehensive. Even a very rich "broth" full of amino acids will still lack certain "essential amino acids" that the human body cannot synthesize on its own, as well as various minerals and vitamins. Therefore, it is recommended to use a combination of animal and plant-based ingredients to make soup. This not only allows their flavors to complement each other but also makes the nutritional profile more complete.