Historically, soup has played an essential role in every culture's diet.
You can add anti-inflammatory ingredients like roots, legumes, animal products, green leaves, etc.
It is a nutrient-dense cooking method; the broth makes it easier to absorve all the health benefits from our foods.
A good soup should be included in every healthy meal plan!
Soup recipes can be modified according to the seasons, and weather, making the broth refreshing and cooling in summertime or enriching and warming in the wintertime.
A healthy soup is an ideal way to combine nourishing ingredients with medicinal herbs.
Your food is the most potent medicine; no remedy or procedure will work in the long run if you keep feeding yourself inappropriate foods.
What is an anti-inflammatory soup?
Chronic inflammation is the root of most modern diseases, like diabetes type 2, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, etc.
Soups are the perfect way of cooking because they allow us to put together the best anti-inflammatory ingredients and make them perfectly digestible for us.
So an anti-inflammatory soup recipe should contain easily digestible vegetables like carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, chayotes, turmeric, cabbage, fresh cilantro, etc., and healthy animal products like chicken and fish that provide us with healthy proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, etc.
Our two favorite anti-inflammatory soups:
1) Bone Broth
We can find a form of Bone Broth in almost every culture on every continent. Anthropologists believe we have been consuming bone broth since prehistoric times.
It is a healthy anti-inflammatory soup, nutrient-dense food, and full of flavor.
This broth is packed with essential nutrients for our health as collagen, gelatin, chondroitin and glucosamine, minerals, glycine and glutamine, and proline.
Our modern way of growing food and the new ways of cooking foods have reduced the nutrients. We are having an epidemic of obesity and, at the same time, malnourishment.
How do you make bone soup?
It is a soup made with bones that contain ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and marrow and simmer at low heat for a minimum of 24 hours. It cannot be done in an instant pot; you need a regular pot or a crock pot because, thanks to the slow cooking method, all the ingredients are extracted into the soup. You also need to add some vinegar to help all the minerals to dissolve in the soup.
Which are the health benefits of bone broth soup?
First of all, it is anti-inflammatory. Let's see in detail its health benefits:
a) Bone Broth Soup may Improve your immune system
When you are with the flu, there is nothing better than chicken broth; it boosts your immune system and regulates your digestion, helping you recover faster and reducing your symptoms.
Bone broth soup is rich in amino acids that boost your immune system, like:
Glutamine; is essential to support the production of cytokines by lymphocytes and macrophages. It is vital to have glutamine-containing foods in every meal.
Arginine; plays an essential role in the function of the immune system and the liver. It helps your body to produce proteins.
Glycine, a powerful antioxidant, may protect your liver and improve sleep quality.
b) It may regenerate your intestines
Our intestines are essential for our health. They are in charge of digestion, choosing what is good for us and what should be eliminated. When they are in trouble, our whole body is in trouble.
We live in a world full of chemicals that attack our gut, like pesticides, antibiotics, microplastics, etc.
Helpfully, bone broth soup is rich in Gelatin and Glutamine, which are believed to help to repair the internal mucosal lining of the intestines, reducing inflammation, improving digestion, and helping to combat food allergies.
Many doctors and nutritionists believe it helps to heal "leaky guts." When this natural barrier is damaged, it produces inflammation and auto-immune conditions. These nutrient-dense soups may help heal and solve this problem from the root.
c) Healthy Joints.
An old Chinese medicine teacher told me, "to build cartilage; you need to eat cartilage."
Bone broth soup is rich in Glucosamine and Chondroitin. Different studies have shown that these amino acids help reduce the symptoms of arthritis and arthrosis.
Your body needs these substances to build and regenerate cartilage.
d) Improve your rest at night and your brain function.
We all wish to have better memory, better focus capacity, clear thinking, and better sleep and rest at night.
A healthy brain can perform better all of these activities. A healthy brain needs nutrients; again, a healthy soup is an excellent source of amino acids that boost brain activity.
Glycine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that regulates how your brain uses energy and improves circulation in the brain. It also promotes relaxation, making it easier to have a restful sleep.
Also, Chondroitin promotes the regeneration and plasticity of the central nervous system, which means it can help with learning and improving memory function.
e) Fights inflammation
Inflammation is a natural process that occurs when our white blood cells attack viruses and bacteria. The problem comes when this becomes chronic; chronic inflammation is the root of most common modern illnesses.
Amino acids found in bone soup, like Arginine, have strong anti-inflammatory properties.
f) Benefits the skin
From a Chinese medical point of view, healthy intestines produce healthy skin. Collagen is a protein used by our body to maintain our skin in good condition and to take care of the intestine walls. As we age, our bodies produce less collagen yearly, so eating a healthy soup made of bones is essential to protect our skin and intestinal health.
g) Promotes a detox effect in our body
Our world is full of toxins, from the water we drink, the foods we eat, the cosmetics we use, our synthetic clothes, etc.
Anti-inflammatory soup like bone broth has essential nutrients that help our liver to improve its ability to filter and detox our blood.
Bone broth is rich in Glycine, which promotes the production of Glutathione, one of the body's most important antioxidants.
How to make this soup, Bone Broth:
We recommend cooking it at home; you will save money and ensure you eat the real thing. There are many different recipes; here we have a simple one:
Ingredients:
1 gallon of water
2-4 pounds of beef bones (knee, femur, ribs, etc.)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
One big onion
One head of garlic
bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Turn on the oven and roast the bones for 20-30 minutes at 450ºF (this considerably improves the broth's taste, making it delicious.)
Bring the water to a boil in a big pot.
Add all the bones and the rest of the ingredients.
Rude the temperature and let it simmer with the lid on from 12 to 24 hours (the longer you cook it, the tastier and more nutrient-dense it will be).
(If too much water evaporates, you can add more water in the middle of the process.)
Allow the broth to cool.
Strain the broth into another container.
How to use it and store it:
You can keep it in Mason jars on the fridge for a week.
To consume, warm it up in a pot and drink it alone in a cup or use the broth to prepare another delicious soup recipe with other ingredients like vegetables, spices, etc.
2) Chicken broth
Chicken soup is one of the most famous worldwide recipes; in almost every culture, there is a variation.
It is one of the most popular remedies to relieve the symptoms of the flu, and in many countries, it is also popular as a remedy for hangovers.
This is another delicious soup packed with essential nutrients like vitamins A, C, and K2, minerals like potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, manganese, and selenium., and a proper combination of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids.
Chicken broth has impressive benefits for our health, similar to bone broth, like joint
protection, improving the digestive system, inducing a more profound rest and sleep, strengthening our bones, supporting the immune system, improving skin elasticity, etc.
Chicken soup recipe:
Ingredients:
Half chicken in pieces or a mix of thighs, drumsticks, and wings
Olive oil
Onion
garlic
Green beans
Carrots
Celery
Cabbage
Potatoes
Corncob
Cilantro
Salt and pepper
Three bay leaves
Zucchini
Lime
Instructions:
1- Take a pot and fry the chicken with the olive oil until it gets a little brown skin.
2- Add the water and bring it to a boil, then add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.
3- After 25 min, add the green beans, the potatoes (chopped and skinless), the carrots, celery, and the corn, and cook it at medium heat.
4- In 15 -20 minutes, add the cabbage and the zucchini and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
5- Stop the fire, and it is ready to serve.
6- When you serve it, add some chopped cilantro and a little lime juice to give more extra flavor.
7- Total prep time; 20 min, total cook time; 50 minutes
8- This chicken soup has a delicious flavor, Bone appetite!
Other ingredients to improve the anti-inflammatory soup effect:
The most essential ingredients for an anti-inflammatory soup effect are the bones from beer, chicken, or fish, which provides all the minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, and calcium..., and all the gelatin, collagen, glucosamine, or chondroitin sulfate that you can not find in veggies or are more challenging to observe from just a vegetable soup.
Here there is a list of other interesting, healthy anti-inflammatory vegetable ingredients that you can add to your recipe:
Fresh ginger and turmeric:
Many delicious Indian soup recipes use ginger and turmeric; combined with coconut milk. These two roots seem to offer better benefits together than separately. - Anti-inflammatory Combining these two roots produces a strong anti-inflammatory effect and is safer than NSAIDs medications for inflammation and pain reduction. - Mental health These herbs are packed with antioxidants, which are believed to improve cognitive function. They can improve memory, and some studies prove they reduce the evolution of dementia and Alzheimer's. - Cardiovascular function Ginger and turmeric improve blood flow; even some studies have demonstrated that they reduce palpitations and blood pressure. They have been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine. - Improving Digestion Ginger is excellent for reducing vomiting and nausea; ginger candies are a folk remedy for the car sick and seasick. Both herbs have successfully been used to treat digestive diseases like IBS, Chron's disease, acid reflux, etc.
Coconut milk:
It is another essential ingredient in many soup recipes. Coconut milk is very popular in India and South East Asia. Let's see its most important properties: - Weight loss: It helps with weight loss because it gives a satiety feeling - Helps the heart: Increases the HDL levels of cholesterol that have anti-inflammatory properties improving heart health. - Improves the immune system It has Lauric acid, which helps our body to fight against fungi, viruses, and bacteria. - Good for your skin Their fat helps moisten the skin, preventing wrinkles. Also, its anti-bacterial properties help in the treatment of acne. - Rich in antioxidants: It contains large amounts of Vitamin C and E, which are well-known for their antioxidant properties. - Rich in minerals Coconut milk has a lot of iron, which is good for preventing anemia. It also has significant quantities of phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium, essential to maintain proper muscle function.
Olive oil
- Olive oil is anti-inflammatory: We should always use extra virgin olive oil to get the most out of its benefits. It is rich in oleic acid, which many studies indicate is a potent anti-inflammatory substance. - Antioxidant properties: Olive oil is packed with antioxidants like vitamins E & K, which improve your heart health and combat cholesterol. - Olive oil is rich in healthy fats: Most of its fats are monounsaturated; oleic acid is the predominant one. Many studies have shown its anti-inflammatory benefits. Also, it is believed to prevent strokes, which are the second cause of death in developed countries.
Sweet potatoes:
Sweet potato is another tremendous nutrient-dense food. - Anti-inflammatory effect It has many compounds that reduce inflammation. For a better effect, choose purple ones. - Weight loss Sweet potatoes are rich in a fiber-like substance that helps reduce appetite and makes you feel satisfied. - Rich in Vitamin C & A Vitamin C has proven anti-inflammatory effects, and Vitamin A is essential for our skin and vision health.
Summary Anti-inflammatory soup is a recipe that has been with humans for thousands of years, and you can find them in every culture. They are easy to cook, affordable, full of flavor, and packed with essential nutrients fundamental to keeping our health in good shape.
We recommend you try them, enjoy them and incorporate them into your lifestyle.
The food you eat can be your best therapy Bon Appetite!