Posted on: Wednesday, January 26, 2005
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SHAPE UP
Soup up to slim down at meals
By Charles Stuart Platkin
Soup can do a lot more than warm you up — it can fill you up and help you lose weight.
A recent study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior found that soups reduce hunger and increase fullness as much as solid foods.
And total calorie intake was lower when participants ate soup rather than drinking similar quantities of ordinary beverages.
Advertiser library photo Rolls led the research that concluded that eating soup before your meal could reduce mealtime consumption by as many as 100 calories.
However, "The soup itself must be fairly low in calories to be the most effective — otherwise you end up eating two meals," cautions Rolls.
Here are a few tips to help you choose the right soup.
If you skip the bread and cheese topping (which can add 350 calories), your best bet is french onion soup, made with sherry, onions, butter and beef bouillon, at about 100 to 200 calories per cup, depending on ingredients.
Broccoli-cheddar soup, often made with heavy cream, has about 175 to 275 calories per cup.
Try to avoid cream and cheese soups in general.
While both are good choices, chicken vegetable is a bit lower on average because it doesn't have the noodles.
• Campbell's Kitchen Classics Chicken Noodle Soup (1 cup): 90 calories, 1g fat, 13g carbs, 6g protein, 870mg sodium. • Homemade chicken noodle soup, from scratch (1 cup): 300 calories, 7g fat, 28g carbs, 30g protein, 1,430mg sodium. • Campbell's Chunky Soup, Hearty Chicken with Vegetables (1 cup): 100 calories, 1.5g fat, 14g carbs, 7g protein, 790mg sodium. This one's a close call.
The only thing that really makes lentil a better choice is that sour cream (60 calories for 2 tablespoons) is often served on top of the black-bean soup. Both of these legumes offer health benefits, including significant folate, magnesium, antioxidants, fiber and protein, with very low calories and fat. One additional benefit of black beans is the amount of iron, a nutrient many Americans tend to be short of in their diets. Peas are an excellent source of fiber, folate and potassium, but split-pea soup is usually the loser calorie-wise. It can be made a variety of ways, and when the peas are puréed, they're sometimes combined with butter and cream, which boosts the calorie and fat content. Minestrone, made with an assortment of vegetables, such as leeks, carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes and beans, is consistently the better choice. One cup is generally in the 100- to 180-calorie range, depending on the amount of beans and whether pasta is added.
You might think all clam chowders are equal, but the Manhattan version is tomato-based, whereas New England clam chowder is made with milk or cream, which makes it higher in calories.
But lobster bisque, typically made with heavy cream, can be the highest of all, coming in at 260 calories or more per cup, depending on the amount of butter and heavy cream used. Bisque, after all, means thick and creamy.
• Progresso Manhattan Clam Chowder (1 cup): 110 calories, 2g fat, 17g carbs, 6g protein, 880mg sodium. • Campbell's Kitchen Classics New England Clam Chowder (1 cup): 240 calories, 16g fat, 20g carbs, 5g protein, 720mg sodium. All these soups are excellent choices. P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup (made with chicken and bean curd) has only 56 calories per cup. Egg drop soup has only about 60 calories per cup, and traditional miso soup has only about 40 calories per cup.
Just stay away from the fried noodles that come with your soup!
Charles Stuart Platkin is a nutrition and public health advocate. Contact him at info@thedietdetective.com. • • • • Look for the word "healthy" on the label. Plenty of canned soups are great for the health-conscious, including Healthy Choice, Progresso's 99 percent Fat Free, and Campbell's Healthy Request. For instance, Healthy Choice New England Clam Chowder has only 110 calories and 1.5g of fat. Plus, soups labeled "healthy" must contain less than 480mg of sodium per serving. • Watch the size. Serving size is important, because we typically eat whatever quantity we're served. • Avoid cream, chowder and cheese soups in general. Whole milk, cream and cheese pack on the calories and unhealthy saturated fat. • Stay clear. Clear broth or tomato-based soups are generally very low in calories. • Fancy equals fat. The further you stray from such basics as vegetable and chicken soups, the more likely they are to be fattening. • Avoid crackers, croutons and bread bowls. Many restaurants make their own croutons from bread, cutting them much larger than the store-bought kind and sometimes adding butter or oil for extra flavor. It's best to enjoy your soup without any of these additions.
"Soups have a water base, which keeps the calories down. They tend to make you feel more satisfied, so you eat less," says Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Penn State University and author of the forthcoming book "The Volumetrics Eating Plan: Techniques and Recipes for Feeling Full on Fewer Calories."
Tomato soup is generally a low-calorie choice — unless you sneak in sour cream or croutons.
FRENCH ONION vs. BROCCOLI-CHEDDAR SOUP
CHICKEN NOODLE vs. CHICKEN VEGETABLE
BLACK-BEAN vs.LENTIL SOUP
MINESTRONE vs. SPLIT-PEA SOUP
CLAM CHOWDER VS. LOBSTER BISQUE
HOT-AND-SOUR vs. EGG-DROP vs. MISO SOUP
SPOONFUL FITNESS
