How much nutritional value does it have?

Lisa Sarah John, head nutritionist of Calorie Care says, "Soups are basically made of water, a few vegetables or some meat. But eating a bowl of soup will give you just a few minerals and vitamins. Neither vegetarian nor non-vegetarian soups give you any energy."

Adding a little vegetables won't make it that much healthier. "Usually you just add some chopped vegetables or shredded meat. This will give you a little more starch, protein and fibre, but not much."

Think of it this way

When you make a vegetable soup you typically add a carrot, an onion, a potato and a tomato. You can add this to 5 cups of water and then you boil it to make the stock. You then divide this soup amongst four people.

So that means everyone gets a quarter of a potato, tomato, onion and carrot mixed in water. Now this isn't much of vegetable, is it?

So these are a few things you can do to make your soup a little healthier…

• When having a chicken soup, add some chicken and vegetables in it.
• To get more starch you can use corn flour to thicken the soup.

• When you make your vegetable stock, instead of straining off the vegetables, puree it into the stock. 

In Diets …

Soups are low calorie foods. But "Diets that tell you to substitute your meal with a bowl of soup are wrong. This is because soups don't give you enough nutrients. A soup is only supposed to be had as a starter and should be followed by a main course always," says Lisa Sarah John.

So even though it's okay to eat soup with every meal if you like it, don't let it take the place of your main course.

Also Read: Two Weeks to Losing Weight

A Veggie Overdose?

In some families if you have a tomato soup, then they would avoid having tomatoes in their salad or meal, as it would cause as overdose. But since your soup barely gives you any nutrition, it's perfectly all right to include the same vegetables in your main course.

Non-Vegetarian Soups

Non-vegetarian soups have high fat content. This is because sometimes you may not bother removing the fat from the meat before making the soup.

"At restaurants they even add the skin, fat and other parts of the meat that we don't usually eat. So think twice before ordering non-vegetarian soups from out," says Lisa.

At home too, there is a large amount of fat in the soup. Nutritionist Zamrud Patel adds, "If you want to get rid of the fat from the soup, refrigerate it before eating. This will get the fat and oils from the soup to solidify on the top. Once this is done you should strain the soup. This takes out the fat."

In fact, mutton and beef soups have such a large fat content, that Lisa Sarah John doesn't recommend it in her nutritional meal plan.