Low-Sodium Chicken Vegetable Soup Recipe [Video]

In the US, November is soup time. By the time November hits, it’s cold enough in much of the US to start craving the comfort of a warm soup or stew [chicken vegetable soup- yummmm]. And we find ourselves presented with a unique opportunity: to pack nutritious immune-supporting whole foods into our indulgent comfort food. But, our immune system isn’t the only body system that can be affected by our choice of soup. We have a chance to boost our heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular system) by making soup choices that are blood pressure-friendly. As usual, cooking our own food is the best way to control its nutrition. So, we’ll review some soup and stew ingredients that add flavor and nutrition and are better than a bouillon cube.

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Here’s a video of the weekly text summary that our Healing Members watched. We spent the week texting about ultra-processed foods and how to choose a nutritious soup option. So, it’s perfect for this article.

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This year, we stand simultaneously on the brink of cold and flu season and knee-deep in the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why it’s especially important to eat food that supports a healthy immune system.

While we tend to think of soup and stew as great for immune support, we might lose out on the health benefits if we’re not strategic about where our food comes from.

Easy supermarket grabs like powdered soup or canned soup are often highly processed without enough vitamins and nutrients and too much salt! Some of these just-add-water soups even qualify as ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and are more factory product than they are a real food item. Most of them deliver large amounts of sodium (table salt), which can complicate chronic conditions like high blood pressure.

Why Watch the Salt in Soups and Stews?

You should talk to your doctor and dietitian about whether you fall into the bucket of people who should carefully limit their sodium intake. In general, most Americans should watch out for the large amounts of sodium hiding in highly processed foods that we might otherwise consider healthy (ahem… like canned soup).

The American Heart Association recommends the average adult eat no more than 2300 milligrams of sodium every day. That’s only about 1 teaspoon of table salt, but it’s significant! Some people’s health could benefit from eating even less sodium every day.

There are some health conditions (high blood pressure and congestive heart failure) that can be worsened by eating too much sodium (table salt). One 2017 study with a large Black American population found as much as a 20-point reduction in systolic blood pressure in people who ate a lower -sodium wholesome DASH diet compared to a high-sodium standard American diet. In this study, individuals cycled through 3 levels of daily sodium intake (4 weeks at each stage) while eating the more wholesome DASH diet OR while eating the standard American diet.

The lower-sodium diet included fewer than 1200 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day, and the higher-sodium diet included fewer than 3600 mg per day. The DASH diet consisted mainly of whole grains and vegetables (with some meat and dairy) while the standard American diet consisted largely of meat, few vegetables and highly processed foods.

How to Avoid Getting Too Much Salt (High Sodium) In soup and stews:

• Choose low-sodium options

  • Look for the “low-sodium” label on canned soup, canned vegetables and broth

• Add herbs and spices FIRST

  • Try onions and garlic, parsley, basil, sage (fresh or powdered), cumin, turmeric, paprika, spicy peppers and black pepper to season your soup

  • If you make salt the LAST seasoning you add, and you’ll probably find that you don’t need much of it

  • Skip the bouillon cube (major sodium load)

• Make your own soup/stew from scratch with recipes like this one from Divas Can Cook:

For more recipes that bring out the best parts of foods, join our Share & Savor wholesome eating course.

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