Soup can also be very good for you. Here are a few of the health benefits of soup:
- Veggie-licious – Dietary guidelines suggest that we eat about 4 ½ cups of vegetables and fruits each day. That standard can be hard to meet, but soup makes it easier. You can add all kinds of vegetables to your soup and move closer to getting in your recommended quantities. Fresh veggies are great, but if you don’t have time to wash and chop them, frozen vegetables work well, too.
- Nutrient rich – Add lean meat or beans to soup to beef up on protein. Pile in the vegetables to get needed fiber and antioxidants. Noodles, rice, and barley can help you get energizing carbohydrates.
- Low in fat – Soup allows you to avoid heavy fats without skimping on flavor. Use lean meat such as turkey or chicken. For creamy soups, you can use skim milk instead of whole milk. Chilling your soup and skimming off the fat before reheating it will further reduce its fat content.
- Helps control weight – Eating soup that contains a lot of water will fill you up easily with less calories than solid food. Chicken noodle soup, for example, has fewer calories than chicken casserole. For this reason, soup can be very helpful for weight loss.
