My upcoming book S🍲piritual cookbook is about our ethnic wisdom from diverse part of the world with regards to healthful soups that are one of the best ways to preserve beneficial nutrients our bodies need. All of the vegetables and proteins we use in cooking contain various vitamins and minerals, but some cooking processes can reduce the potency of those foods—when making soup, you know that all of that goodness is being cooked directly into the soup itself, with no loss of nutrients. The process of cooking with water does not involve production of harmful chemicals such as AGEs, known cancer-producing substances, which can occur when grilling, barbecuing, frying, and to lesser degree with sauteing or baking.

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In addition, it’s easy to modify soup recipes to your tastes, and most are adaptable so you can add various types of vegetables, spices, or meat you like. Not to mention, soups are an excellent and delicious way to increase the quantity of vegetables you consume, all of which will enrich your gut microbiome. The more types and amount of vegetables we incorporate into our diet, the better for you, and there is almost no negative consequences in doing so. There are myriad studies emerging on a near-weekly basis, and are now showing the jaw-dropping importance of enriching and maintaining the bacterium in our guts.

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In general, vegetables can be consumed in much larger quantities when cooked than when eaten raw. Picture a bowl of spinach—now consider how that would reduce to a soft fistful of greens if cooked. You’d be able to eat much more of it, and that’s what will happen to the food that ends up in our belly at the end of the day.

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Soups are also an excellent way to incorporate healthful spices as well as meats which are certainly an important part of so many different cultures, and can also be wonderful sources of nutrition. Spices have innumerable benefits—let alone the anti-inflammatory effects, there are so many phytonutrients, and they also delight our tastebuds with any flavor pairing you can think of.