If it is packed with vegetables, low in calories and fat, soup can be a healthy addition to your diet. However, soup's hidden danger is sodium. Many traditional soups and recipes are high in sodium, which negates some of the health benefits. Slashing the sodium can redeem your favorite soups, returning them to the list of healthy foods to include in your diet.
Sodium
Too much sodium contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Current dietary guidelines for most people is to get less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. If you want to improve your health or if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, limit your sodium to 1,500 mg per day. Because 1 tsp. of salt contains 2,300 mg, the entire daily limit for most people, watching sodium levels can be tricky. Soup can contribute a large proportion of this limit.
Canned Soup
Many canned soup brands come in healthier versions that carry the American Heart Associations Heart Check Mark logo.To sport this logo, a food must contain less than 480 mg of sodium per serving. Finding no-sodium canned soups is harder. You may have to compromise by choosing low-sodium. You can still include soups in a healthy diet if you are careful in reading labels and finding soups with the lowest level of sodium possible. Health Valley Organic brand has no salt added soups you can consider.
Broth
When making your own soups, you have to do more than leaving the salt out. Broth is the main source of sodium in soups. There are two ways to get rid of sodium in the broth that forms the base for your soup. First, make the broths yourself, by boiling meat or vegetables, without adding any salt, to make broth from scratch. If you are looking for an easier solution, seek out canned stock that has no added salt. Hormel Foods Herb Ox brand offers sodium-free broth granules.
Seasonings
When making sodium-free soups, it is important to compensate for the lack of salt. Adding herbs, especially fresh herbs, as seasonings helps make up for the lack of salt. Fresh parsley and thyme add depth of flavor to many soup recipes. Consider using freshly pressed garlic, bay leaves or pepper in your soup to add flavor.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Sodium in Diet -- Recommendations
- American Heart Association; 2010 Dietary Guidelines; January 2009
- American Heart Association: Heart-Check Mark Nutritional Criteria
- Health Valley: Organic Chicken Noodle Soup
- UVA Nutrition Services; Low Sodium (Salt) Eating Tips; December 2010
- Hormel Foods: Herb-Ox Bouillon
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