Soup for You!

This time, let’s talk about soup. We discussed different salad options in the previous post, so let’s look at the salad’s second cousin: soup. Like salads, soups are offered as part of a meal at many restaurants instead of a salad. There are many different options, such as chowders, Minestrone, chicken noodle, and so on. Soups can be warming to the soul, especially on a cold, winter day, but these can also have high fat and sodium contents, which is bad for our health.

Let’s look at chicken noodle soup for a moment. This is a classic soup for any age. Remember when your mother made homemade chicken noodle soup when you were sick? The feeling of the warm broth and the chicken just makes you feel better; however, due to the stocks that these soups are made of, the sodium content can be just as high as a large order of fries. Reducing sodium in this soup would be beneficial because it is enjoyed by people young and old, and by reducing the sodium content, it can be enjoyed without the feeling of being too salty for our bodies.

Now let’s talk chowder. These cream-based soups come in many different varieties, such as clam and chicken and corn. A soup like a New England Clam Chowder is a staple on the East coast, but it is also loaded with fat. The cream that makes the base of the soup is dairy, of course, and the fat content of that and the other ingredients makes it about half of our daily caloric intake. These soups have begun to have the fat content reduced, though they are still rich with calories. So when you think about having that chowder before your steak dinner, try going for a Minestrone instead. It’s a simple vegetarian classic and can be enjoyed by most anyone.

What do you prefer before your meal: Soup or salad? I, myself, prefer a salad before my meal, but if a restaurant has a unique soup that catches my attention, I wouldn’t mind straying from our leafy friends in a bowl for a hot bowl of soup. If you go to a restaurant within the next week, tell me if they offer a soup or salad before the meal. I want to know what you chose and why. Are you hungry for Mom’s chicken noodle soup yet?