The Good soup

CEBU, Philippines - “Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living. For soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish." -Louis P. De Gouy, 'The Soup Book'

Everyone knows what soup is and everyone loves soup especially in cold weather. One thing that I truly missed the most about having to live far from home is the fact that I don't get to enjoy the goodness of homemade soup any time that I want to, most especially during times when a storm is brewing right outside. Call it a placebo effect if you must, but soup undeniably makes you feel good even if you aren't sick. Clear soup or thick soup, a bowl of good soup never fails to make meal times a lot more special.

Soup has been around for quite some time and by 'quite some time', I mean to say since 6000BC. Interestingly enough, its feel-good roots took hold along the Parisian side streets way back in the 16th century when street vendors sold cheap soup to passers-by claiming it was an antidote for exhaustion. In fact, this is where the world 'restaurant' also came from which literally meant 'something restoring'. Eventually, shops specializing in soups started to pop up which eventually prompted the modern use of the word, 'restaurant'.

Since then, soups have become incredibly popular, eventually becoming staples in popular cookbooks and sealing their reputation as a restorative and feel-good antidote not just when you're suffering from a bad case of colds.

Truth be told, the feel-good quality of soups can be attributed to the key ingredients that make soup inherently healthy which is why, when you're terribly sick and don't have the appetite to chow down solid stuff that your body needs, soup is your best recourse considering that its packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in a form that's easy to take in when you're weak.

Here are some top 3 reasons why soup isn't just good for the soul:

1. Soup helps you get well fast

An old Chinese proverb once said that before the physician heals the sick with medicine, he heals the sick first with good food. Soup is therapeutic mainly because unlike stewing and frying, it is prepared in such a way that it conserves much of the vitamins and minerals already packed in meat and veggies and it breaks these down in forms that the body can best absorb thanks to good old simmering. Soup also doesn't require a lot of energy to digest, leaving your body with enough energy and resources to fight the infection. Soup may not necessarily heal you 100% but it does help you recover fast because it alleviates certain symptoms like nasal congestion. Soup is packed with antioxidants like beta carotene, for example, that keep free-radicals that cause cancer at bay.

2. Soup helps you detox

Living in the big city means being surrounded by pollution which can wear down our cells and leave us drained at the end of the day. Because it comes in a liquid format, soup helps us cleanse the body from toxins that are sure to slow us down. You can say that for the most part and with the right detox ingredients thrown in, drinking soup is treating your body to an internal general cleaning.

3. Soup helps you warm up and build your immunity

The best soups are undeniably the warm soups especially for the colder months beginning July when the rain just can't help but pour. The rainy season is also the time when a lot of us are prone to becoming sick with colds, coughs, the occasional fever, or a combo of all three. This is the time when the immune system needs loads of back up manpower and where soup fits the bill of providing extra ammo to keep the immune system strong. Soup provides us the extra ammo because when food is simmered in low heat, warm energy and therapeutic properties of veggies and meat are leached out and nutritional values are preserved.

Of course, there are a lot of processed soups in the supermarkets that cut down on the cooking time but believe me, the best and healthiest soups are still the soups made at home.