When have now entered soup season and honestly if you’re like me then you love soup any time of the year. But there’s something special about a warm bowl of soup on a cold night.
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But what about if you’re looking for a soup that’s also good for your gut? Let’s dig in.
Is soup good for gut health?
Soup can be good for gut health because the main ingredients in soup can help your digestion and feed your microbiome. Just about every soup recipe is going to be built around gut-supportive foods like vegetables and herbs and spices.
Plus soup can be good for the soul so listen to your gut if you ever get the feeling that you should have soup. You can even use soup as a way to build in some mindfulness when you’re eating. You can concentrate on how you can feel the warmth of the broth starts to warm you from the inside out.
What soups are good for the digestive system?
When you’re looking for a soup that’s good for your digestive system you want to look for these four factors:
- Variety
- Color
- Fiber
- Prebiotic or probiotic foods.
What about if you’re following a gut healing protocol? Gut healing soups will have ingredients that are specific to your protocol but focusing on easy to digest soups will be at the heart of the matter. These four factors will be a good starting point to identify a soup that’s good for your gut.
What’s nice is that if you’re just looking for a gut-healthy or gut healing soup two things will hold true:
- The broth of the soup will have a lot of nutrition from your vegetable and protein ingredients.
- Cooking helps soften the fibers in your veggies making it easier on your digestive system.
Pro Gut Health Tip For Soup:
Be mindful of how fast you are eating the soup and if there’s a lot of slurping. It could be easy to take in a lot of air which can make you feel bloated.
Soups For Gut Health
Let’s dig into our soup roundup with a recipe that highlights each of the four factors for a gut-healthy soup.
Variety of vegetables
Your gut loves and needs variety to help with a healthy microbiome. Soups are also one of the best ways to use up any veggies that might otherwise get lost to the recesses of the fridge. Pus vegetables are a source of minerals which also helps support your digestion and overall health.
Try this instant pot beef vegetable soup from The Oregon Dietitian. You can easily use any veggies you have on hand so toss in whatever you got.
Fiber foods
When you get lots of different veggies you’re going to be guaranteed that you’ll have a lot of fiber. If your soup is light on fiber you can also look at your soup sides or toppings. Slicing avocado, adding a bean burrito, or a side of some seedy crackers.
This fiber-filled instant pot chicken stew from Healthy(ish) Appetite has your fiber game covered with the addition of beans, veggies, and couscous.
Lots of color
A lot of color means that you will have a variety of antioxidants which means that you’re going to be eating a soup with anti-inflammatory properties. Some colors that can be especially anti-inflammatory are red, yellow, green, and blue foods. Herbs and spices can also fit under this category.
This easy lentil soup from Being Nutritious only takes 30 minutes to cook and incorporates lots of different colors from the red tomatoes to the green lentils.
Prebiotic or probiotic foods
Prebiotic foods have a special type of fiber that research has shown to help feed your gut bacteria. There are two types of prebiotic foods that star in almost every soup recipe: onions and garlic. You can also add probiotic foods like yogurt, miso, or sauerkraut to your soup. Probiotic foods have live bacteria that are good for the gut.
The star of this loaded kielbasa soup from Hungry Hobby is the garlic and onions adding tons of flavor and are your prebiotic foods plus you could add some sauerkraut for a bonus probiotic food.
Amanda is a pizza loving registered dietitian nutritionist specializing in mindfulness and gut health. She quickly realized that gut health goes beyond the gut; it is also about honoring our gut feelings. She is the creator of The Mindful Gut™ which uses science and strategy to help people improve their gut health.
