Soup-of-the-day: A Tasty, and Economical Way of Keeping Slim

Soups, broths and potages are the oldest recorded cooked foods, which date back over eight thousand years. As soon as man had mastered the art of creating hearths, lighting fires and making pottery cooking vessels, broths were devised as the finest way of extracting the full food value from vegetable scraps and animal carcases. This provided a tasty, nourishing, dish which even the poorest families could afford. In sixteenth century France cheap, but invigorating, soups were sold by street vendors who offered them as a remedy for physical exhaustion. These dishes became so popular among the working classes that in 1765 a Parisian entrepreneur decided to take them upmarket and offer them in well furnished indoor eateries. These establishments came to be known as ‘restaurants’, since they were places specialising in the provision of ‘restoring’ food.

This ancient dish should play a central part is our diet, for several key reasons. For one thing, starting a meal with a bowl of soup is an excellent way of keeping slim. This was demonstrated by researchers at Pennsylvania State University, who gave volunteers a lunch which either went straight to the main course, or started with a consommé or broth soup, both of which were made from the identical ingredients – chicken broth, broccoli, potato, cauliflower, carrots and butter. The results were unequivocal. Those who started with the soup, whether it was thick or thin, received a high intake of fluid and roughage which quelled their hunger pangs and gave them a feeling of satiety. As a result on average they consumed twenty per cent fewer calories. ‘People on diets are usually restricting their food intake, which is not always effective because they feel they are missing out on eating,’ the researchers explained. ‘What our study shows,’ the researchers concluded, ‘is that when volunteers had soup they were eating more food but consuming fewer calories.’

Eating some soups can also have a therapeutic effect, which is why chicken soup became so popular among Jewish families living in straightened circumstances in European ghettoes. Its effect is partly sedative, which is why Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen chose to call their collection of inspirational stories Chicken Soup for the Soul, a book which went on to sell in excess of two million copies. Now I was once a great fan of chicken meat, because it originally contained so much less fat than Aberdeen steaks. But that’s only true of free-range chickens fed on a natural diet. Corn-fed battery birds are a totally different species. This was revealed by a trial carried out at London Metropolitan University, which showed that, as a result of the radical change in farming methods, chicken meat now contains nearly three times as much fat as it did thirty-five years ago. A roast chicken leg complete with skin now has more fat than a Big Mac. ‘Chickens used to roam free and eat herbs and seeds,’ the researchers explained. ‘They are now fed with high energy foods and even most organic chickens don’t have to walk any distance to eat.’

So we may have to revise some of our ideas about chicken soup, although the evidence suggests that it can still have a calming effect on the mind, because it’s one of the finest sources of tryptophan, the precursor of serotonin, a naturally produced hormone which lowers levels of aggression, encourages restful sleep and generates a stable mood and equable temperament. This is classified as an ‘essential’ amino-acid because it can’t be produced in the body, but must be obtained through the diet.  But the great joy of soup is that it can be made from whatever scraps of meat and vegetables happen to be around. It offers a dish which is not only delightfully varied, but an also provides a wide range of minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients. In the Ukraine they’re made with beetroot (Borscht); in the south of France from scraps of fish (Bouillabaisse); in Scotland from leek and potatoes (Cock-a-leekie) and in Italy from mixed vegetables. (Minestrone) For a brief while in England it was fashionable for the landed gentry to sit down to Green Turtle Soup, made from giant turtles, weighing up to a hundred pounds, which were shipped over live from the West Indies in fresh water tanks. Within weeks of their arrival on the fashionable, haut cuisine scene ingenious traders were offering the less well endowed the chance of eating ‘mock’ turtle soup made from the heads of boars.

So make a regular habit of preparing and eating soups, which can usually be safely stored in the freezer for up to two months. By doing this you’ll not only improve your personal health, but also play your part in safeguarding the environment. This was shown by a study of the dustbins of over two thousand volunteers, which revealed that the annual total of jettisoned food products in Britain has now reached a staggering £10 billion a year. This is not only a waste of valuable food, but also an extravagant misuse of transport facilities, since the merchandise has to be carried to the supermarkets, then to our homes, and from there to the land-fill sites and incinerators where it decomposes and releases methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. If only Britons would turn those edible scraps into soup they’d reduce the country’s emissions of carbon dioxide by eighteen million tons a year.

© Donald Norfolk 2010

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