Introduction: In China's culinary tradition, there has always been the saying "The original soup aids in the digestion of the original food." After eating noodles or dumplings, the elderly would always drink some of the original broth. From a nutritional perspective, this saying has some scientific basis.
Firstly, "化" (huà) means "to digest." When cooking starchy foods, some starch from the surface dissolves into the soup. When heated to 100°C, the starch granules break down into dextrin, which can help with food digestion. Moreover, noodle soup contains digestive enzymes that are not destroyed during the cooking process and can also aid digestion. Therefore, drinking the original soup can help reduce indigestion.
Secondly, drinking the original soup also has a supplementary effect. Flour is rich in water-soluble B vitamins, but during the cooking process, these vitamins leach into the soup. Thus, drinking the soup can, to some extent, make up for the vitamins lost from the staple food during cooking.