Soup, a food?

[tobbogonist]

Is soup a substantial food? I dont think we have any dietition unicyclist but i am sure someone will know.

I eat more than my fair share of soup, and pasta, it is easy to cook and you can dip practically anything not quite as runny as soup into it. Am i being un-healthy?

soup can be Hearty! like say minastroni, or one can have a nice light tomato or broccolli soup. mmmm soup.

[1-wheeled-grape]

yeah i think its healthy, i had home made butter-nut squash soup today:D its deffinetly healthy and i love it:D it is substantial, it gives me enough energy, so it must be good

[unisteve]

You do not need to justify your food choices to anyone but yourself. The people accusing you of not eating healthy are probably just out to get you.

[JJuggle]

I love soups, but the canned sorts tend to be very very high in salt.

[tobbogonist]

yay for soup!

Yeah i realise that, i was just wondering if it is un-healthy.

i just loves me soups.

Jjuggle canned soup is brilliant, there is some salt reduced ones on the local supermarket shelves.

[vanpaun]

i only like soup from the soup factory http://www.newenglandsoupfactory.com/menu.html

and amys no chicken noodle

[brendon557]

i hate soup or a meal, cus i feel like im getting ripped off, its more of a thick drink to me, but for a snack its good

[john_childs]

Reduced salt soup is the work of evil beings. It does not taste good. I don't have high blood pressure or hypertension or other health issues that require a low salt diet. In fact, physiology is such that I require more salt to maintain an active lifestyle. I need to consume extra salt when I exercise otherwise I experience a condition that feels similar to bonking. Even on just a 20 mile Coker ride I need to take salt tablets to keep my electrolyte levels up even on a cool day. Without the extra salt I am worthless by the end of the ride.

Why is the world out to force me to consume less salt? Do they not want me to maintain an active lifestyle?

[Chexjc]

Reduced salt soup is the work of evil beings. It does not taste good. I don't have high blood pressure or hypertension or other health issues that require a low salt diet. In fact, physiology is such that I require more salt to maintain an active lifestyle. I need to consume extra salt when I exercise otherwise I experience a condition that feels similar to bonking. Even on just a 20 mile Coker ride I need to take salt tablets to keep my electrolyte levels up even on a cool day. Without the extra salt I am worthless by the end of the ride.

Why is the world out to force me to consume less salt? Do they not want me to maintain an active lifestyle?

I have a similar problem. My heart condition requires that I take a medication which lowers my blood pressure and pulse rate. My resting heart rate is in the low 40's. Without lots of gatorade or salt before a ride, I can feel very faint. The cardiologist said "salt is your friend!" Salt tablets? I should look into that.

I LOVE soup. I like most, although I generally avoid any fishy ones. What about Ramen Noodles? $1.50 for 12 packages, can't beat that! Personally, I love it - cheap, easy to make, delicious, easy to clean up.

[john_childs]

The cardiologist said "salt is your friend!" Salt tablets? I should look into that.
Check a local store that caters to triathletes. They will probably carry electrolyte tables (salt tablets). I use Lava Salts (http://www.squeezy.com/salts.htm), but there are others. Very handy. I take 1 or 2 about every 45 minutes during a vigorous ride. If it is hot out I take more.

Salt is your friend.

Soup is your friend.

The CSPI can eat my salt encrusted shorts (http://www.cspinet.org/salt/index.html). They are trying to kill me. It is obvious that no body at the CSPI does vigorous exercise. How can they with the diet they eat?

[Chexjc]

Check a local store that caters to triathletes. They will probably carry electrolyte tables (salt tablets). I use Lava Salts (http://www.squeezy.com/salts.htm), but there are others. Very handy. I take 1 or 2 about every 45 minutes during a vigorous ride. If it is hot out I take more.

Salt is your friend.

Soup is your friend.

The CSPI can eat my salt encrusted shorts (http://www.cspinet.org/salt/index.html). They are trying to kill me. It is obvious that no body at the CSPI does vigorous exercise. How can they with the diet they eat?

Thanks for the info!

How do they taste? Are they salty? I've found that you can make almost anything taste better by salting it. Haha!

[_Ground_Zero_]

I'd say that soup is a liquid cause the broth is liquid and the vegetables or meat is food, and since there's usually more broth than soup, I'd say it's a liquid...kinda.

[uni57]

The CSPI can eat my salt encrusted shorts (http://www.cspinet.org/salt/index.html).Don't get me started about CSPI. They played a BIG part in screwing up people's health for the last two decades with their campaign against saturated fat in the mid-80s. Guess what they got the saturated fat got replaced with? Trans fat. Here's what the Weston A. Price Foundation has to say about them. (http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/cspi.html)


Soup can be incredibly healthy if made properly. Some cultures have proverbs along the lines of "good broth can resurrect the dead" (can't remember the exact reference). If you roast a whole chicken, after you are done with it, throw the bones in a pot of water and simmer for hours and hours to make a nice bone broth. People should have broth every day. I don't know if the supermarket soups are made that way. I suspect that they cut a lot of corners with artificial flavors and MSG instead of making a traditional bone broth as the basis for their soups.

Edit: almost forgot -- soup is a GREAT way to eat your vegetables. I don't really like vegetables, but if I put them in a soup, I can eat a lot of them.

[john_childs]

Thanks for the info!

How do they taste? Are they salty? I've found that you can make almost anything taste better by salting it. Haha!
They don't taste salty at all. They don't taste of anything. The electrolytes are inside a gel capsule like a pill.

[tomblackwood]

i hate soup or a meal, cus i feel like im getting ripped off, its more of a thick drink to me, but for a snack its good
You need to get you some Pho. Hot, hearty, meaty, salty, filling, and CHEAP.

Mmmm, Pho.

[ivan]

Soup is great. And it's a healthy food. I don't know about canned ones, though. Make your own. Just throw lots of vegetables and potatoes into a pot of boling water, some pepper and salt, wait 15 minutes and you're good to go!

Experiment with what vegetables and how much of them you put in.

[uni57]

Soup is great. And it's a healthy food. I don't know about canned ones, though. Make your own. Just throw lots of vegetables and potatoes into a pot of boling water, some pepper and salt, wait 15 minutes and you're good to go!

Experiment with what vegetables and how much of them you put in.Bones! Bones! You need bones! :)

Adds flavor and collagen and minerals and calcium and other stuff I can't remember. Make a bone broth first. Then do what you said. Can't be beat. And you won't get that level of goodness from a can.

[Bondo]

Soup is good food.










But it is not bacon.
:)

[Mikefule]

Soup is the ingredients. Good ingredients make good food.

Then again, do you mean broth, pottage, stew...

[wobbling bear]

Then again, do you mean broth, pottage, stew...
velouté, bortch, harira .....

edit: oops forgot "garbure"

[kington99]

velouté, bortch, harira .....

edit: oops forgot "garbure"

consomme?

[cathwood]

Stew, soup, broth: may be healthy but psychologically it doesn't seem like food to me. :rolleyes:

[ridethelobster2008]

Yes.

I would not worry about soup being not good for you. John Foss is right: the sodium/potassium osmosis cell balance is a crucial issue
for hard riders/runners/workers. So cool it on the salt ahead of time, try citric acid ( lemon/lime.) as flavoring in advance. Simply use salt as needed and pay attention to electrolytic management. Read a basic biology/chemistry overview. It is not, and I am loathe to say this, rocket science. It's simply the way our bodies work. We are, in the end, a chemical/electrical/mechanical system. Oh, and I guess there's the mind.

Manufactured soup is so sodium heavy it is scary.

May offer this: from the North country we roast hearty root vegetables for 45 minutes ( about 375) and then, in a simple water base, bring them to a boil, then turn it down for an hour to very, very low heat. No meat, a little canola oil, and no seasoning until everything is soft. Run a hand blender through it ( a texture issue) and then, and only then, taste it. Add the things you like ( lemon juice, some pepper, sage, coriander) say.

At the last going off ( another regional expression), a few healthy tablespoons of good yogurt, strained Greek for instance(10% milk fat),and an egg yolk. That will will thicken everything, after you whip it up.

Squash, yams, good carrots, turnips, onions, decent potatoes, apples, a few mangoes: soup can be anything. Just let it do it's thing, season lightly. Read MFK Fisher, "How to Cook a Wolf." Learn to cook and you will find the lover of your dreams.

Best from where, evidently, we make soup.

More on bouillabaisse soon ,as I am from Marseilles (not Barcelona)
Wobble on, fueled by decent soup.
Best regards, where the tide is high ( never mind)
william dockrill

[mornish]

Soup is the only food.




I just had some yummy tortilla chicken soup.

It was scrumptious

[surfer1024]

my mom makes good soup. Split pea, pot pie(its a soup), tortilla soup, and some other ones.

[john_childs]

I would not worry about soup being not good for you. John Foss is right: the sodium/potassium osmosis cell balance is a crucial issue
for hard riders/runners/workers. So cool it on the salt ahead of time, try citric acid ( lemon/lime.) as flavoring in advance. Simply use salt as needed and pay attention to electrolytic management. Read a basic biology/chemistry overview. It is not, and I am loathe to say this, rocket science. It's simply the way our bodies work. We are, in the end, a chemical/electrical/mechanical system. Oh, and I guess there's the mind.

Manufactured soup is so sodium heavy it is scary.
The body is able to regulate sodium levels if you have a high sodium diet. How is it bad to have a high sodium diet if you are a healthy person with no heart disease or hypertension? Why does salt have to be a boogyman to be avoided?

Electrolyte needs vary from person to person. I need a lot of electrolytes when I exercise. Some people can do a marathon with only water. Put me in the same marathon and I would never make it through without extra electrolytes, even if it is not a hot day.

I used to wonder why I was always feeling drained when others on the same ride were feeling just fine. We'd eat the same, drink the same, but I'd end the ride wasted with salt crusts on my face.

I know there is a difference between regular daily intake of salt and the use of electrolyte tablets during exercise. But it still leaves me confused about why salt in soup, chips and fries is bad while electrolytes during exercise is good.

[Borges]

If you roast a whole chicken, after you are done with it, throw the bones in a pot of water and simmer for hours and hours to make a nice bone broth.
Roast chicken soup with bended carrots, potatos, and a bit of cream cheese. Mmmm.

A haybox is great for making soup too. There really should be one in every kitchen.

[dan de man]

haybox?

[1-wheeled-grape]

a haybox is a box filled with hay, hay is a good insulator, if you take the pan out of the oven and put it in hte haybox it will still cook and stay warm. they used to use them in WW2 to take food into the shelters, without ruining it.

[caudy]

Soup is one of the greatest culinary inventions. And with bread it's also very filling.

[Borges]

haybox?

Mine is a basket with crumpled paper and a discarded sleeping bag.
You boil things until they're warm all the way through, and then put it in the haybox. Rice just need to boil for a few seconds before they go in the haybox. Bigger vegetables need more time.
It makes cooking easier because you can't burn the food and it stays warm until the rest of the meal is ready.

[vanpaun]

a very good soup base is boulion i havr veggie boulion cooked right now. yum :)

[dudewithasock]

Cream soups are amazing. Chowder...mmmm!

[ridethelobster2008]

Mine is a basket with crumpled paper and a discarded sleeping bag.
You boil things until they're warm all the way through, and then put it in the haybox. Rice just need to boil for a few seconds before they go in the haybox. Bigger vegetables need more time.
It makes cooking easier because you can't burn the food and it stays warm until the rest of the meal is ready.




I knew nothing about haybox cooking. Now I do.
Thanks to you.

william

[ridethelobster2008]

The body is able to regulate sodium levels if you have a high sodium diet. How is it bad to have a high sodium diet if you are a healthy person with no heart disease or hypertension? Why does salt have to be a boogyman to be avoided?

Electrolyte needs vary from person to person. I need a lot of electrolytes when I exercise. Some people can do a marathon with only water. Put me in the same marathon and I would never make it through without extra electrolytes, even if it is not a hot day.

I used to wonder why I was always feeling drained when others on the same ride were feeling just fine. We'd eat the same, drink the same, but I'd end the ride wasted with salt crusts on my face.

I know there is a difference between regular daily intake of salt and the use of electrolyte tablets during exercise. But it still leaves me confused about why salt in soup, chips and fries is bad while electrolytes during exercise is good.

I have been on the forums for five months now and I find your posts, Mr. "Guinness" Childs especially thoughtful. Thank you for another way to look at making soup. I do not uni but ride a bike 90 miles a week, and I know I was speaking from my own experience as a point guard and long distance runner (Abebe Bikila was my hero.) I think your observation about the bad rep salt has achieved has influenced my thinking, but I only know what I feel when I go distance.

I have no answer to the "salt in soup, chips and fries is bad while electrolytes
during exercise is good" conundrum. I know what I feel.

Thank you for your on-going wisdom.

Best,
from where Riding the Lobster is not quite as cross-genetically perverse as it is may seem at first blush,
Why not come here and be a commentator? We have some Internet TV content producers who might be interested in your cogent insights.

william dockrill

[kington99]

But it still leaves me confused about why salt in soup, chips and fries is bad while electrolytes during exercise is good.

Electrolytes is salt when you're losing a lot of salt and need to intake to keep your level steady. Fries are salt when you don't need it. Presumably you agree that eating sugar is a good idea on the trail but that eating sugary food all the time is bad? I think the negative health effects of excess salt are fairly well proven, and in a country with so much mal-nutrition a the US giving the genreal advice to avoid salt seems reasonable. Obviously if you have different body chemistry or make particularly harsh demands on your body you have to take this advice with a pinch of, well you get the idea.