Sorting out the soups.Sorting Out the Soups You've got to admire soup manufacturers. Anyone who can turn a little water, salt, fat, and bits of this or that into a $2.4 billion-a-year industry must be doing something right. Right for their shareholders, that is. So don't expect to open a can or envelope and find anything remotely resembling a Roman's vegetable-filled zuppa or a Muscovite's hearty sup. More likely, the next time you slip your spoon into a bowl of "Hearty Original Lite Creamy Country-Style Homemade Chunky Soup with Real Whatever," you could end up with a lot more salt and fat than you think. IT'S SO(DIUM DIUM Disk Indelible Utility Mark ) SAD Most soups are brimming with sodium. The problem so embarrassed the industry leader, Campbell Soup Co., that several years ago it quietly shrunk the serving size on its condensed soups from 10 oz. to 8 oz. Poof! With one change of the label, sodium levels seemed to drop by 20 percent. Thanks a lot! (In comparing soup against soup, we've used a 10-oz. serving, which is what the U.S. Department of Agriculture tells us is an average portion. Keep in mind that some dry packaged soups make only 6 to 8 oz.) In response to complaints by consumer groups like CSPI CSPI Center for Science in the Public Interest CSPI Corporate Service Price Index CSPI Cumulative Schedule Performance Index , some companies have expanded their "low-sodium" lines. (A "low-sodium" soup can have no more than 140 milligrams per serving.) And, to its credit, Campbell created a line of "Special Request" soups with one-third less sodium than usual. Just remember that "one-third less" can still be rather salty. The average "Special Request" soup has 647 mg per 10-oz. serving. That's less than the 1,047 mg you get in the average Campbell's regular red-and-white can. But it's still more than the 500-mg allowance recently recommended by the National Academy of Sciences for an entire day! Except for Campbell, most of the Big Salties don't volunteer sodium content, which can be quite high. A few "Salt-Cellar Specials" like Nissin Oodles of Noodles Pork or Cup of Noodles Chicken pack more than 2,000 mg (a teaspoon's-worth) of sodium into ten ounces. CUP-A-FAT Fat can be a problem, particularly if you go for creamy or chunky soups. Campbell's Chunky Creamy Chicken Mushroom hits the scales at a hefty 24 grams of fat--5 1/2 teaspoons of grease in just over a cup of soup. The just-add-water-to-make-a-cup-full-of-noodles soup also tend to be fatty. Top sellers like Oodles of Noodles, Top Ramen ra·men n. 1. A Japanese dish of noodles in broth, often garnished with small pieces of meat and vegetables. 2. A thin white noodle served in this dish. , and Cup O'Noodles (all made by Nissin) average anywhere from 18 to 20 grams (4 to 4 1/2 teaspoons) per 10-oz. serving. Fantastic Foods Fantastic noodles have about half that much, while Nile Spice Golden Couscous cous·cous n. 1. A pasta of North African origin made of crushed and steamed semolina. 2. A North African dish consisting of pasta steamed with a meat and vegetable stew. Soups have as little as one gram of fat per serving. DON'T SNEEZE sneeze, involuntary violent expiration of air through the nose and mouth. It results from stimulation of the nervous system in the nose, causing sudden contraction of the muscles of expiration. Soups with carrot bits are high in vitamin A vitamin A also called retinol Fat-soluble alcohol, most abundant in fatty fish and especially in fish-liver oils. It is not found in plants, but many vegetables and fruits contain beta-carotene (see ; tomato soups are often fortified fortified (fôrt  ´fīd),adj containing additives more potent than the principal ingredient. with vitamin C; and meat, bean, and noodle soups can have respectable amounts of protein and some B-vitamins. Also, any soup that has a good supply of beans, chickpeas, or lentils should be a source of soluble and insoluble fiber. And that's nothing to sneeze at This article is about the Garfield and Friends episode. For the Rocko's Modern Life episode, see Nothing to Sneeze At / Old Fogey Froggy. Nothing to Sneeze At is an episode of Garfield and Friends. , since a half cup of beans appears to have the same cholesterol-lowering effect as a bowl of oatmeal or oat oat member of the plant genus Avena in the family Poaceae. oats see avenasativa. oat grain seed of Avena sativa, and as 'oats' the favored grain for the feeding of horses. bran. BEST BITES After wading through nutrition information for more than 200 soups, we found 24 that met our criteria for a 10-oz. serving: * 300 mg of sodium or less * 5 grams of fat or less * At least 10 percent of the USRDA USRDA United States Recommended Daily Allowance for three or more vitamins or minerals. Nine are made by Health Valley, eight by Pritikin, four by Hain, and three by Campbell. Most negotiate the lack of fat and salt by adding an extra dose of herbs, spices, and "natural flavorings"--with mixed success. Our CSPI taste-testers agreed that low-fat, low-sodium soups take a little getting used to. Hain Pea No Salt Added, Health Valley Vegetable No Salt Added, and Pritikin Manhattan Clam Chowder Manhattan clam chowder n. A soup made with clams, tomatoes and other vegetables, and seasonings. [After Manhattan1, a borough of New York City.] Noun 1. all had "off" flavors. Top-taste honors went to Pritikin Split Pea, Pritikin Tomato, Campbell's Low Sodium Tomato, and Health Valley Black Bean No Salt Added. PHOTO : Many soups are fatty and/or salty. |
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