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Soup, Weight loss and Nutrients

So most of you already know I am looking to lose weight. I was wondering if eating a can soup for lunch and dinner could help me in this endeavor and if I could get all the Nutrients I need.

I know homemade would, but to be honest I dont have time to make homemade soup most days. I just figure there are so many options when it comes to soup and so many different ingredients, plus i like to add different seasonings and veggies when I dont think the can has enough.

I love soup and really think that I could keep up with this for the most part. I would probably add a salad and wrap in here and there. But soup is so easy to eat and so many veggies can be added. I just not sure if I can get enough of the recommend nutrient from eating it that often.

What is everyone's thoughts?
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Avatar universal
Thanks everyone for the responses. From what I am gathering Canned soup is a no go. However, if I can find some simple healthy soup recipes this maybe ok to try.

I figured that was the case. I guess I was still wishful thinking. I feel like my time is so tight and it takes time to make healthy meals. Last night and the night before. I made myself Cucumber salad, with tomatoes and avocado. Then add a bit of seasoning, sunflower seeds and a small bit of cheese which is my down fall LOL. Anyhow thanks for the help.
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They do make some decent healthy canned soups. There are low sodium versions.  I look at it this way …   is a can of low sodium soup healthier for you than other fast food options? Yes. Is it as good as say a chef prepared light meal? no. But hey, that isn't something most people have. If you like soup, you can indeed find some decent canned options on days you don't have one you made yourself to bring to lunch.  

Your salad options sound terrific also.  You sound like you are doing a great job.
Trying just started eating differently again but already seeing the benefits. Does this over ride the time it takes at times. Well only time will tell.

Tonight i am doing stir fry veggies. Brocilli, carots, red bell pepper, some green onions and spinach cooked in olive oil, tjen making some califlower rice in coconut oil. Probably use a few seasonings maybe some tumeric. Not the easiest meal but not the hardest meal.
Do you have 30-45 minutes on a Sunday to make soup for the week? That's what I have been doing and can give you some of the recipes of the soups I have been making.
That is hard to say some sundays i feel like i barely get to breath. Others i have plenty of time. I have some easy recipes but just get tired by the prep.

My job has a great cafe that includes two soups a dayjust a bit expensive.
If it helps at all when you feel like the healthier food is expensive, remember that eating in a healthy manner and losing the weight you want to lose are great investments in long-term health.
It helps when i have the money to spend. It doesnt help when paychecks are tight and things are needed.

My biggest issue though is time. There is not enough time in the day.
Cheaper to buy bowls of soup at the cafe than to pay the deductible for the doctor's bill, though. There must be one or two recipes that are fast to prepare and also healthful, that you could swap occasionally for something more caloric. I'm thinking of things like throwing tuna, olive slices and hard-boiled egg slices on a salad for dinner. Those small flat packages of tuna aren't too expensive, and once you have them they keep just fine in the pantry for a long time. Just like with soup, you might not want to eat amended salads all the time, but it can help to drop one in every now and then as a break in the pattern.
I understand the money issue.  I know that my budget for going out to eat is what I cut first.  Plus, restaurants tend to use a lot of sodium too.  Do you have a crock pot?  What is nice about soups is you can often dump and go.  While not every Sunday will work to make the soup to take to lunch for a few days, I'm sure many will.  Or try it in a crock pot.  Get your husband to take a turn making it.  :>)  (my husband makes cabbage soup.  Little sketchy what all goes in it but I just don't think about it . . . ha ha).  Buy some bagged lettuce and things like pumpkin seeds or whatever you like in a salad and on some days, throw that in a Tupperware and take it if you don't have a can of soup.  

But honestly, you sound like you are doing a great job!  
Just a note -- frying in olive oil isn't a good idea.  Olive oil is not a high-heat cooking oil, as it's carcinogenic at temperatures high enough to cause it to start smoking.  Not as bad baking with it, such as using it to crisp up a baked chicken, but for stir-frying, you want to use oils that are meant for high-heat cooking.  In Chinese cooking, they traditionally use a combination of sesame and soy oil.  Same with most of east Asia.  You can also use canola oil (you want organic here, the rest is GMO), safflower oil, avocado oil, and others.  You can look up a chart of what oils to use at what temperature.  And take care with the coconut oil -- if you're doing it for that Thai or Indonesian flavor, fine.  But it's very high in saturated fat.  I know it has become a fad but don't overdo it.  Also, try to get some protein in that stir fry if that's your whole meal -- don't know what you're able to eat, the most likely sources are tofu or almonds or cashews, and you have allergies so don't know what you're able to do there.  If you can't do nuts, do pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds or some kind of seed.  Keep up the balance.   And don't worry about the cheese if you do it moderately, but think about goat or sheeps milk cheeses.  The culturing and not using cow's milk takes away some of the problems people have with dairy.  Peace.
Specialmom, Thanks yeah I decided maybe to make soup here and there for me. My husband would be no help. He doesnt get in the kitchen at all, and doesnt like soup or most healthy foods LOL. Little does he know I sneak in the health where I can. Last night I slipped up a bit. I had two frozen  egg rolls, but it was better then the pasta and garlic bread my husband had.

Paxiled, I called the veggies stir fry, but I am aware that olive oil is not good for high heat cooking I usually use a bit on low to medium heat to start cooking my veggies and then drizzle a bit on top after they have cooked a little. As for the protein for lunch that day I had a salad from the cafe if you would call it that...it was more my own creation. It was broccoli, carrots, and shredded chicken with a bit of pumpkin and sunflower seeds on top. Then I drizzled on my olive oil and seasoning. I do try to keep a balance diet. May not be the best at it but I try to shake things up and mix it up with different creative seasonings and oils. Not easy as I said last night I slipped up and had two frozen egg rolls.
The only thing I'm going to add here is that you make some pretty good sounding salads.  

You don't say if you eat breakfast, but if you do, that might be a good time to add some fruit, if you can eat any of those, or maybe use a bit of fruit for dessert.  One of my favorite desserts is fresh pineapple chunks with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Of course, you don't have to have fruit because a lot of fruit is full of sugar, which most of us don't need anyway, but it's always nice to have something sweet along the way.

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In my opinion, eating soup as a means of weight loss is likely not going to be sustainable. I am a firm believer that in order to lose weight and keep it off, you need to make a lifestyle change (not dieting) and eat a balanced diet. It can take time to get yourself used to eating a balanced diet, but in the long run, it will mostly likely work out better for you than dieting would.
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Not to quibble because I agree totally with your basic point, but again, soup isn't dieting.  If a person just likes soup a lot, then soup is fine provided the soup contains all the good balanced diet stuff.  It's the content, not the form.  But if you're eating soup full of things that make you gain weight and aren't good for you, then it's just as bad an idea as eating any other form of meal that is like that.  If it contains lots that is good for you and is balanced, then it's as good for you as any other form of meal.  So for all you soup lovers out there, if you want to live on it, you can, you just have to put everything in the soup you need to eat and not put anything in it you don't need to eat.  Same as any other meal.  I wouldn't want to eat that way, but hey, maybe some people just love soup.
Yes, I agree, if you like soup and that's what you want to eat, go for it. Also agree that the soup should be nutritious. I personally am eating a homemade vegetable soup everyday at work for lunch, but it's because I need to eat more veggies, and soup seems to be the vehicle that makes it easier for me to eat them LOL
I agree. nutritious soup is as good as a meal. Although I still believe that from time to time, there should be an intake of a proper regular meal every once in a while.
Agree. I only eat soup for lunch 5 days a week...I don't think I could eat more soup than that LOL while I enjoy the soup, I also enjoy biting into a sandwich or a wrap with some sort of meat.
649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
SeisureAdvocate, I don't really think eating just soup would provide the nutrients you need.  Although vegetables are very good, they would leave out some things, I'm sure, but of course, I'm not sure what kind of soups you'd be eating either.  

Don't forget that fish, eggs, fruit and whole grains are also part of a balanced diet and, typically, those aren't found in soup.  If you were going to incorporate those into breakfast, dessert and/or sufficient snacks, you might be able to pull it off, but I think this would become a very tiring diet, eventually.

I, too, love soup, but there's no way  I could live on soup (especially canned, with all the sodium and other additives) for any length of time.  Even when I make a large pot of homemade veggie soup, I get tired of it before it's gone.  

In order to make it more healthy, I might suggest that you take a weekend and make a large pot of homemade soup and freeze it into individual portions so you can simply reheat it during the course, of the week.  It would be much healthier than canned soup (without all the sodium and other additives) and you could still use your own veggies, herbs and spices.  You could even make 2 different kinds at once - perhaps a chicken based one and maybe just a veggie or a beef based one, etc.
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I'm not saying I'd like to live on soup, I'm not as crazy about soup as I am about most foods, but you can actually put whole grains, eggs, fish in soup if you want to.  Fish soup is a staple throughout the world.  Egg drop soup is a staple in East Asia.  There are tons of soups that use grains, and you could use whole grains if you wish -- barley and rice are especially common in soup.  Good ol' chicken noodle has pasta in it, as do many soups.  A favorite of mine my Mom made was oxtail soup, which is very heavy on the barley.  Again, it's not the form, it's the content.
And let me say, as someone who eats probably differently than most on here because I got used to eating things from managing health food stores I didn't know about before, some soups are great adjuncts to a good meal.  Miso soup is high in protein, and is very good for the digestive system.  If you throw some tofu and seaweed in it, you've pretty much got a healthier meal that most of us eat all week.  A holiday is coming up for me where I can't eat a lot of what I usually do because of dietary restrictions, so I'll be spending 4 days eating matzoh ball soup but it's not like any you're see anywhere else.  While the matzoh balls aren't good for you and I wouldn't recommend them for weight loss or nutrition, my soup is more French than typical, so it's loaded with carrots, celery, onions, parsley, naturally raised whole chicken which keep in there instead of removing it to leave a broth, and a ton of Mediterranean based spices.  Eaten with some side veggies and sprouts, this is an entire meal that is mostly soup.  It can be done.
You're absolutely right that fish can be used to make soup.  I wasn't eliminating that as a possibility; it's just not something we tend to use routinely as a soup base.  

I also wasn't considering rice, barley and pasta/noodles - duhhh... I use them all the time in my own soups, so yes, they show up in a lot of soups.  

My biggest point was the canned soup considering the amount of sodium that's in most canned foods.


Well, you can buy canned soup without the huge amount of sodium added, but ugh!  The taste is pretty bland.  Still, when I do buy canned soup, I do buy no salt added even though that chicken soup I mentioned simply can't be made without a lot of salt added.  Long cooking will steam out a lot of it, though.  But an added objection to canned soup is, again, the ingredients aren't usually going to be the prime ones.  They use the ones that couldn't be sold in the produce section very often so they might not be the ones that did the best that year.  But not a big problem for me, as soup really isn't my favorite way to eat.
I concede - if on is lucky enough to find low sodium soups (or doesn't care about the amount of sodium they eat), one could live on soup, if that's what they like.  I do think it's debatable whether or not they'd get all the nutrients they need, but of course, many/most of us don't do that with our diet anyway, so there are always supplements to fill in the blanks.

At any rate, it appears that we've discussed the original poster right off the thread, so it might all have become a moot point.  
Maybe we've made moot soup!
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If anyone actually cares, I answered this with my opinion such as it's worth on the nutrition forum.
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Paxiled, can you link you answer from the nutrition forum, here so we don't have to hunt for it, please?

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