What soup for a diet?

BitterAndTwisted

I thoroughly recommend soups made from brassicas, most especially kale

mardatha

*lalalala NOT LISTENINGGGG*

daska

I'm with you Mardartha. Kale is great because it's high in protein but I'm not dead keen on what is essentially cabbage soup. You can improve it no end by adding loads of nutmeg, some chestnuts or some stilton to help disguise the general yuckness of it.

bossymoo

Mulligatawny is good. Basically curried mince soup. Shop bought ones often have rice but I leave it out. But of tomato pur!e, curry powder, brown the mince off in it and away you go. Add water and simmer, blitz with hand blender if you like it smoother. A tiny spot of cornflour if it needs thickening.

Or French onion? Broccoli ans cauliflower soup is nice and you can stir in soft cheese to thicken, makes it all creamy and lush.

sleepless_saver

mardatha wrote: »

I don't really know much about carbs Mojisola. I make carrot & lentil soup, add some barley and odd veg, and I havent a clue how it is for carbs etc. I planned on sticking to soup every day but thought best to check first in case it isn't helping.

This website http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ lets you put in your ingredients for a recipe and tells you the carbs, fat, protein etc content per serving. Very handy.

Do you mean you're only having veg soups? If so, then you're probably not going to be getting enough protein, and possibly not enough fats.

mardatha

Well I throw everything into my soup, bits of meat, butter, the works. But it's just for my midday meal, I have a proper meal at night. TY for that site.

maddeningly

Def no point soup, all it is is tinned toms, carrots, onions, celery boiled up and bended. I add a red pepper to mine but also put a chilli pepper and some balsamic vinegar in, both are supposed to assist weight loss!

Fire_Fox

Definitely sign up to Myfitnesspal, it has a recipes function you can input all your ingredients and it will tell you the fat, carbs, calories etc. Protein you need little and often if at all possible, your body cannot store spare, it keeps you full and boosts the metabolism.

The problem is if you make a soup which is low carb it's likely also to be low calorie so you could end up starving the body. By taking out any starchy carbs (beans, lentils, barley, brown rice etc) you are also removing some of the minerals and fibre so be sure you are eating plenty of these elsewhere in your diet, don't underestimate how much you need to eat of nuts and seeds to get enough of certain minerals, it's piles.

Veggies lower in carbs include broccoli, celery, leeks, cauliflower, red cabbage, aubergine, spinach, canned tomatoes, savoy cabbage, baby corn, mushrooms, fine green beans, fennel, bell peppers, asparagus, seaweeds, chicory, curly kale, butternut squash, mangetout peas, samphire.

Higher includes regular sweetcorn, sweet onions, carrots, petit pois, garden peas, broad beans, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnip, eddoes, celeriac. Ignore any US lists that have veggies rated per serving/ cups, a cup of carrots is much heavier than a cup of spinach so it's not a fair comparison!

mardatha

Have signed up and taken note of this, once again thanks lovely forumites

The_Magnificent_Spoon

I hope it doesn't come across as lecturing, but I really don't like the word diet. The diet industry is one of the worst offenders for creating health problems. They sell this whole 'eat healthy for six weeks, lose some weight and then go back to what you were doing before' lifestyle that so many of us are bought into.

A diet is a permanent lifestyle choice. Not a temporary solution to a permanent issue.

When working on your diet, don't go overboard. Choose meal plans that are balanced, varied, and that you actually like. That you can happily live on for years, not weeks.

Yoyo dieting builds up natural insulin resistance, which gradually makes it harder and harder to lose weight, and can eventually lead to permanent health issues such as diabetes etc.

Always remember, not all fats are bad, you don't want to cut the good EFA's out etc. and not all carbs are bad, they are essential for providing fuel to our bodies for ongoing activities. Just steer away from the white sugary carbs, towards the brown carbs and steer away from carb based snacks, as they are the easiest to fall down on. My own personal tip is to steer clear of carbs in an evening, as they will be digesting while you sleep, and you only want them while you're up and about,

There is so much info and advice out there that it is overwhelming. But always remember, the keys to success are balance and variation, and don't try that hard that you are unhappy with what you eat. It is a PERMANENT change you are doing, so you need to like and enjoy your food!