How to choose the right soups?

[Article updated on 19/09/2023]

Did you know that you consume 13 liters per year per person? Many brands offer them: in bricks, canned or even fresh. But how to choose them well?

Soup, what is it?

The term “soup” is the one we use when we talk about a liquid vegetable-based preparation.

But from its name, we have information on the product because there is soup…and soup…

Indeed, depending on the texture, the soup will be called a soup (very liquid soup), a mouliné (with pieces of vegetables) or a velouté (contains fat, a binder like flour and is mixed).

You can find dehydrated soups, dry products to which hot water is added to reconstitute the soup.

Or again, frozen soups which often have a composition similar to that of a homemade soup (controlled quantity of salt).

You will also find fresh soups but these are more expensive soups.

​There are lots of vegetables so it’s good for your health!

THE soups provide water, which is often the second ingredient after vegetables. There is a lot of fiber there, essential for the proper functioning of our intestinal transit.

Then, when you consume thick enough soups, you quickly achieve a feeling of satiety without consuming a lot. It is a food that is good for low calorie intake.

And if your children don’t like soup, serve it in a cup with a pretty straw, it works every time!

But some pitfalls…

You have to know how to choose them and not fall into certain traps…

The soup provides satiety but…it is… partial.

Indeed, even if soup is a slow meal, as it is liquid, it is also diuretic.

As a result, we quickly lose the benefits of the “appetite suppressant” properties of water, it is digested very quickly!

So don’t make it a single meal, it is better to add afterward a chewable food such as meat, bread, etc. because chewing causes the process of satiety.

And why not opt ​​for a Minestrone, a variation of thick vegetable soup from Italian cuisine, often added with pasta or rice, and served with grated parmesan.

And be careful too, because there is soup and soup.

Indeed, if, instead of making homemade soups, we buy commercially produced soups, the risk is to end up with soups that are too salty, with added sugar or with additives, such as glutamate, a flavor enhancer. unhealthy taste.

So look carefully at the list of ingredients: it should be short and contain only what your homemade soup would contain!

I reassure you, there are brands on the market that are fortunately close to “homemade”.

“Without colorings or preservatives”, is this a good soup?

Yes, but above all it is obligatory!

In fact, this is the regulation: a soup must not contain preservatives or colorings, so this is not the most important thing to ultimately look at when you buy a soup.

What to look for when buying soup?

• Make sure the vegetable content is above 50% at least.
• Pay attention to the salt content! Flavor enhancer par excellence, manufacturers tend to have a very heavy hand. It must be less than 1 g per 100 ml of soup.
• The amount of fiber must be greater than 1.5 g per 100 ml to be really interesting.
• Sugar is the second flavor enhancer, its content must be less than 1 g per 100 ml.
• There lipid content, i.e. fats should not exceed 2.5 to 3 g/100 ml.

And then, once again, the best is to simply make your own soup at home!

Does it take long to make “homemade” soup?

This can be prepared very quickly with a few simple tips.

First of all, if you don’t have the time to buy good fresh organic vegetables that you will have to peel and cut, then simply buy organic frozen vegetables! You will have already saved valuable time peeling/cutting and these unprepared frozen vegetables are nutritionally just as good.

And then, once your soup is made, freeze it, so you will have it for the whole week!

It’s cheaper, you know what you’re putting in it and it will also be to your taste.