Soup season warming up
By Carolyn O'Neil | Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 07:47 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the weather gets cooler and the night comes sooner and the leaves start to turn, it seems to signal a change in our appetite. Menus feature heartier soups and stews, and the chilled dishes of summer go out of style like white shoes after Labor Day.
Soups are a year-round thing, of course. But falling temperatures often mean a rise in soup pots on the stove to help warm us from the inside out. Soups have long been associated with stick-to-your-ribs, good-for-what-ails-you nourishment. But if your top health concern is weight control and keeping your cholesterol in check, there are a few guidelines to follow when choosing what to ladle into your bowl.
Did you know that eating more of the right kinds of soup can help you lose weight? Dr. Barbara Rolls, a weight control researcher at Pennsylvania State University and author of “The Volumetrics Eating Plan,” found that eating soup as a first course helped study participants lose weight because they consumed fewer calories in the rest of the meal.
That doesn’t mean you can gorge on New England clam chowder made with heavy cream. The broth-based soups study participants consumed, even though they were lower in fat and calories than other food choices, helped to increase feelings of satiety. Rolls’ theory is that the more water a food contains, the fuller we feel. “If you don’t like soup, start your meal with a salad, a piece of fruit or a glass of vegetable juice,” she says.
And the lower the energy density of a food (its concentration of fat and calories), the more we can eat. Two hundred calories will buy you just 1 cup of cream of broccoli soup with cheese. The same number of calories will get you 2 1/2 cups of vegetable soup with beef broth.
Do soups make you eat less? What are some of your favorite soups?
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