Food and medicine come from the same source of wisdom in a bowl of soup
Chinese people drink soup not just to quench their thirst.
The older elders often say this sentence, "I'd rather eat without food", and the second half of the sentence is "I can't eat without soup". However, there is actually a profound concept of health preservation behind this.
From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, soup is a very direct manifestation of the same origin of food and medicine. It has the effect of strengthening the spleen and appetizing, soothing the throat and moistening the throat. It also has the effect of warming the middle and dispersing cold, and can replenish and strengthen the body.
Among these popular therapeutic soups, there are brown sugar and ginger soup to dispel colds and sweating, and mung bean soup to cool down and relieve heat. In fact, they are supplements that are extremely difficult to obtain in daily life. To be precise, they are the most effective and real supplements.
For example, pork bone soup, which has the effect of promoting children's development and helping mothers lactate, after simmering it, it becomes a soup that is often used among the people with anti-aging effects.
"Reconciling yin and yang" is the key to diet and health. Food is used to regulate the dynamic balance of the body's internal environment.
For example, people who have heat in the body are suitable to eat cold food to relieve the cold, but people who are afraid of cold need warm soup to warm up the cold.
This bowl of soup is actually about balance.
Ancient people’s view on diet: Being light and frugal is the key to longevity
As early as the Tang Dynasty, medical scientist Sun Simiao observed such a phenomenon. People in the Guanzhong area lived a very frugal life. Their daily diet was just pickles, but they rarely got sick and lived a long life. However, in the Jiangnan area, which was extremely rich in products and had all kinds of delicacies from land and sea, the locals often got sick and died early.
This shows that dietary structure directly affects disease resistance and life span.
Summarized in the Qing Dynasty's life art book "Xian Qing Ou Ji", the 24-character dietary principles are very incisive, presented as the so-called "emphasis on vegetable food", then "advocating frugality", then "valuing the true taste", and "maintaining lightness", and "avoiding greasy food", and "paying attention to cleanliness and beauty", followed by "killing with caution", and including "seeking knowledge and seeking benefits from eating". These concepts are still not outdated even today.
Even Zuo Zongtang, who regained Xinjiang, could not forget the fresh water shield soup from Jiangnan. His friend Hu Xueyan actually carried fresh water shield on silk and transported it all the way to Xinjiang, just for the delicious taste of his hometown.
It can be seen that the charm of a good bowl of soup has been irresistible since ancient times.
There are things to pay attention to when making soup: longer is not always better
When it comes to health soup, many people’s first reaction is Guangdong Laohuo Soup .
As the saying goes, "Boil three and stew four" means that it takes three hours to make soup and four hours to stew.
Heating for a longer period of time can indeed hydrolyze the protein, thereby releasing amino acids from it, ultimately producing a delicious taste.
However, from a nutritional perspective, if the time is too long, the biologically active substances will be destroyed, and the purine and fat content will also increase.
If you take into account both nutrition and taste, It is enough to simmer livestock and poultry ingredients for 1.5 to 2 hours .
The time required for aquatic products and tofu is only 10 to 30 minutes. There is a common saying among the people, "Thousands of rolls of tofu and ten thousand rolls of fish." The method of slow stewing on low heat is used to make the soup noodles roll slightly without the soup overflowing. The fish stewed in this way will be more delicious.
For shrimps, crabs, and shellfish, the time is shorter. After the water boils, put it in the pot and turn off the heat in about ten minutes.
When using mushrooms, algae and root vegetables as auxiliary ingredients, they can be added after the meat is simmered until it is seven or eight times mature. The overall time required should be controlled within 40 minutes.
Remember not to use an iron pot when stewing lotus roots, otherwise they will easily oxidize and turn black.
Tips for soaking dry food and processing green leafy vegetables
Before making soup, dry goods must be processed in advance.
Ingredients such as lotus seeds, gorgon seeds, barley, yam, red dates, peanuts, and black beans can be soaked in water for two to six hours, and then stewed together with the main ingredients.
Compared with other situations, green leafy vegetables present a completely different state. They need to be thrown into the soup when it is about to come out of the pot, and the fire source is turned off immediately after completing the slight boiling action. In this way, its bright color can be maintained.
If cooked for too long, the nitrates in green leafy vegetables may be converted into nitrites, which is not beneficial to health.
For stewed black-bone chicken with American ginseng, it is like stewing squab with Ganoderma lucidum, it is like stewing teal with Cordyceps, and it is like stewing pork ribs with ginseng and qi. Such classic combinations can be used for both stewing and boiling.
In daily life, Cantonese people tend to like to make soups, such as winter melon soup with dragon bones, watercress soup with crucian carp, and peanut soup with chicken feet. The preparation methods are relatively simple.
In terms of its tonic effect, the stew has a better sealing, which makes the taste more fragrant and the nutrients are more intact.
Should you drink soup before or after a meal? The scientific answer is the former
The folk proverb says "drink soup before meals, you will be slim and healthy", which is not unreasonable.
Before eating, sip some soup first. With something in your stomach, you will naturally feel full, which will suppress your appetite, reduce your intake of staple food, and help prevent obesity.
At the same time, drinking soup before meals is equivalent to adding lubricant to the digestive tract, allowing food to be swallowed smoothly.
Drinking some soup in the middle of a meal can also help dilute and stir the food.
But there is one thing to pay special attention to: Don't drink soup that's too hot .
The mucosa located in the oral cavity, the lining inside the esophagus, and the mucosa on the stomach wall can only withstand a temperature of about 60°C. People who often drink food with very high temperatures will find that the incidence of esophageal cancer in the body will be significantly increased.
Good soup should be eaten slowly and at the right temperature to be both healthy and safe.
Only by choosing the right ingredients and drinking the right way can soup truly nourish you.
Healthy soup is not complicated. The key lies in choosing the right ingredients, controlling the heat, and drinking it at the right time.
From the black fish soup that can nourish blood, to the crucian carp soup that can clear breasts, from the black fungus soup that can remove fat and improve eyesight, to the white fungus soup that can nourish yin and moisturize the lungs, each soup has its own "mission."
The simple soups that northerners usually like, and the Laohuo soup that southerners are particularly fond of, can all be healthy as long as they follow the principle of "emphasis on vegetarian food, emphasizing authentic taste, and focusing on lightness".
Remember, the longer the soup is simmered, the more nutritious it is, nor does the hotter the soup becomes, the more it will dispel the cold.
Only by drinking soup correctly can the dietary therapy wisdom that has been passed down for thousands of years effectively nourish our bodies.
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