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Whilst the weather isn’t quite sure what it wants to do, we are still in the winter months and there is nothing better than a hot bowl of soup to satisfy our appetite and warm us up on a cold day.
Along with the now super-popular air-fryers, soup-makers must be the next favourite kitchen gadget and it is certainly the item I use most. I love the fact that I can prepare my vegetables and place them straight into the jug of the soup-maker along with all the appropriate ingredients and just switch it on and leave it to cook. Then, when ready, I just press ‘blend' and it liquidises the content. In around 30 minutes I have a soup ready to serve.
Of course, soups vary and sometimes I choose to cook the soup in a pan. Butternut Squash and Thyme Soup is an example where personally I find it doesn't work so well in a soup-maker. The butternut squash, when chopped into chunks, needs to be dry-fried with the celery, onion and garlic and because the quantity is so bulky, I find that it is too much to cook all in one go in a soup-maker. It is easier to cook in a large deep frying pan, then liquidise when cooked.
We have a choice of over a dozen easy-to-prepare soups in our Soup Recipes section – all tried and tested and full of wholesome nutrition. You may also like to watch our video Why Soups are Super Healthy on the Good Nutrition page of the website.
Here are some of the reasons why soup is such a great choice when we are trying to eat healthily and keep our weight in check:
- We can batch cook and freeze soup when vegetables are in season then serve it all year round.
- Soup is easy to freeze in appropriate portion sizes. To save using all our Tupperware containers in the freezer try using the plastic box as a mould, lining it with a freezer bag. Pour in the soup (when cooled down) and wait for the soup to freeze. When frozen, seal it, slip the bag out of the box and pop it into the freezer. Label the soups every time and date them. Many soups look similar when frozen!
- Soup is the perfect healthy lunch served with a slice of wholegrain bread.
- Soup allows our blood glucose levels to stay stable so keeps us feeling fuller for longer.
- Soup is a great way to help us get our five-a-day and is cheap to make.
- Hot soup in a flask is a great way to keep warm on a hike on a wintry day.
- Leftover soup can be added to casseroles, Bolognese sauce or other dishes.
- Avoid wasting leftover vegetables by putting them all into the soup-maker with some vegetable stock and a vegetable stock pot and make soup!
A green Portion Pot® will measure a perfect portion of soup for our lunch. If we are entertaining, offering a home-made soup as a starter for a main meal is so simple if it is already in the freezer. Try a red Portion Pot® as a ‘starter’ serving. If making soup to freeze, avoid adding any milk or yogurt until it is ready to serve as they don’t freeze well. Soup is a low-fat, super-healthy food. Let’s eat more of it!
Here are some soup-suitable store-cupboard ingredients I have in my kitchen:
- Variety of stock pots
- Dried herbs and spices
- Black peppercorns
- Red lentils
- Tomato puree
- Epicure Sweet Roast Garlic
- Dried noodles
- Basmati rice
- Canned chopped tomatoes
- Easy Garlic
- Easy Ginger
Making soup is amazingly rewarding and a great stand-by when we can’t think what to eat for a healthy lunch. It still remains one of the healthiest and cheapest meals we will eat!
I've been asked a number of times which make and model of soup-maker I use. The one I have is the Cuisinart model SSB1U.
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Serves 4
Per serving: 187 calories, 1g fat
Prep time 10 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
1 very large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots, well washed (or peeled if necessary), chopped
1 large or 2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
5cm or 2in piece of ginger root, peeled or 1 tablespoon Easy Ginger, drained.
500ml vegetable stock using leftover water from cooking vegetables
1 vegetable stock pot.
Rapeseed oil Frylight spray
Freshly ground black pepper
- Take a large pan and spray with Frylight rapeseed oil and dry-fry the chopped onion until soft.
- Add the stock, the vegetable stock pot and the chopped sweet potatoes and carrots and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- Peel the ginger root if using and grate, or chop in a food processor. When the vegetables are half cooked, add the ginger to the pan and season well with freshly ground black pepper.
- When the vegetables are cooked, place in a liquidiser and process until smooth. If too thick, add more stock.
- Serve immediately in warmed bowls.
- If using a soup-maker, allow enough time for the vegetables to cook thoroughly before liquidising.
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Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.
As you will know if you read this Newsletter regularly, I take fitness classes and organise walks with my members every week.
Around every six months or so I like to individually measure my groups so we can note any changes that may have occurred and then discuss the results. These measurements include their current height so we can see if it has changed during the previous six months. Recently, by far the majority that I tested had lost some height since their last measurement, and as you would expect, not one person was happy about it!
There is of course a certain element of inevitability as all of us will lose some height in our later years but, as always, there are things we can do to reduce the amount of height we lose. I have lost a total of 3cms (just over 1 inch!) which is about normal for a female in her early to mid-seventies. My 12-year-old granddaughter has just overtaken me in height and was so delighted about it she did a celebration dance around the kitchen! As she goes up, I go down!
Why do we lose some height?
There are three main culprits:
- Spinal disc degeneration. Our discs are like little sponges that protect the vertebrae; over time, they lose water content and then compress, reducing the gap between each vertebra. As our spine is made up of 27 vertebrae and the gap between each one is shrinking, it is no surprise that we must lose length along the spine – hence we are shorter.
- Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis makes our bones less solid. Small bone fractures in the spine (which we may not even be aware of) cause the spine to 'bow' forward, affecting our height. My mother lost a good 7.5cm (3 inches) in height due to osteoporosis, and as there is a genetic link, I am determined to do all I can to minimize my risk.
- Muscle Loss. Sadly, we also tend to lose muscle mass as we age. Our 'core' muscles around the abdomen, which are meant to keep us upright, are reducing significantly so our posture is again compromised. Also, our ability to gain muscle gets harder and as muscles lose power and mass, our joints are not so well supported. This creates tension around the joints which in turn reduces our ability to move well and has the effect of worsening our posture further.
How much height loss to expect
It is from about the age of 40 that changes will begin to happen, at an average rate of 1cm per decade. With women, the rate seriously increases following the menopause when the risk of osteoporosis increases. Typically, a woman will lose about 5cm (2 inches) between age 40 – 70 with men only losing 2.5cm (1 inch) by age 70.
Taking action!
One of my more recent members had her first time on my ‘Stadiometer’ (height measuring device) only last summer and she had never been on one since schooldays! Therefore, she was extremely shocked to find she was 2.5cm (1 inch) shorter than she thought she was. This time, when I measured her 6 months later, we found she had actually grown! It was just one centimetre, but as she is in her seventies, that was highly unusual and she was delighted to have regained some of that lost height.
On discussion she thought that the constant posture reminders that come up in the classes, combined with more attention to posture right throughout the week, was the main reason for it. I am confident that it comes from regularly doing Pilates, where not only are you corrected with your posture but also many of the moves in Pilates are aimed at strengthening our 'core' – those vital postural muscles.
Preventing osteoporosis
Whilst we can't totally prevent ourselves from getting osteoporosis, as there is a genetic link, we can take healthy steps to maintain stronger bones:
- Calcium and Vitamin D are the foundation of strong bones. We must make sure we have plenty in our diet including taking a Vitamin D3 supplement throughout the winter months when sunshine is less available.
- Get plenty of exercise. Brisk walking (or slow jogging) if we can, loads those bones really well.
- Eliminate unhealthy habits. Alcohol, caffeine and smoking all weaken the bones.
If you are already diagnosed with osteoporosis your medical practitioner will hopefully have guided you on all the right steps to take. I have known many ladies I work with be told they no longer have it due to all the lifestyle changes they have made!
Stay strong!
Strength training is vital. We can seriously offset our loss of muscle mass by regularly picking up the weights which helps the pull of the muscle across our bones, keeping them strong. But even simply using our own body weight to exercise, such as doing press-ups, sit-to-stands, squats and lunges, we can make a massive difference to how well our joints are supported, helping us to hold a good posture.
Finally, we do need to accept the inevitability of some height loss as we get older but let's work hard to minimize it.
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This Week's Fitness Challenge
- On your daily 30+minute walk, once you have warmed up (after about 5 minutes), try adding some bone loading with some slow-jogging. Perhaps try 2 minutes walking briskly then 1 minute slow-jog.
- Do 10 small jumps on the spot, with both feet leaving the floor (if you can) every day this week. Alternatively, lightly pretend to skip for 30 seconds.
- Pick up a broomstick and, if you can, place it behind your shoulders. If you struggle to do that you need some postural work. This week, every day, stand with your back to a clear wall with heels 5cms (2 inches) away. The back of your hips and shoulder blades should just touch the wall. (The back of your head may not touch but try to get it closer). Now float both arms outwards and up as far as you can whilst still in contact with the wall. Repeat 5 times.
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By using a pole (an old broom handle is great) you can effectively mobilise your shoulders to help improve your posture and upper body mobility to help you look more youthful.
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Did you know... 
A stadiometer is a piece of medical equipment used for measuring human height. It is usually constructed out of a ruler and a sliding horizontal headpiece which is adjusted to rest on the top of the head.
Stadiometers are used in routine medical examinations and also clinical tests and experiments to give a very accurate reading of a person's height.
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And finally...
Every week we learn more and more about our body and how we can manage it the very best way we can. Learning how we can work towards protecting our height reduction is golden information and I believe we should all make every effort to follow Mary’s excellent advice. The better our posture, the less likely we are to lose those much-appreciated centimetres. It takes effort, we know that, but anything worth fighting for always takes effort.
Have a great week.
With love and best wishes,
Rosemary Conley CBE DL
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LIVE LONGER | LIVE HEALTHIER | LIVE HAPPIER
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