Soup Culture for Your Health

If there is anything that people would grant a higher priority in their lives than getting rich the word would be health. All the same it is easy to say that we want health but having it is quite a different thing. The frightening rise in cancer rate for instance is showing that despite better healthcare and more advanced medical technologies things are not looking bright. The World Health Organization predicts that world cancer rates could increase by 50% to 15 million new cases in the year 2020.

More and more people are now looking towards alternative medicine to stay healthy and combat their ailments. But really what is called "alternative medicine" is a misnomer. For instance traditional medicines like Ayurveda and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) both have a history reaching back to antiquity and their practices have not been broken despite the introduction of modern medicine. The concept that they are alternative medicines therefore sounds odd at least to those who continue to have use of them.

A naturopath once said to me "Allopathic (modern western) medicine excels in treatment of acute cases such as those requiring immediate surgery while natural medicine excels in treating chronic health problems." I find this view quite valid. Each medical practice has its strong and weak points. It therefore seems more prudent for people to be eclectic rather than to doggedly favor one medical practice over another when seeking treatment.

Traditional medicines like TCM have always been part and parcel of people's daily lives. For one thing this means that daily food was seen as medicine. For instance among the Chinese the Cantonese dialect group is especially known for their faithful embrace of such a "food as medicine" practice. Herbal soups are often consumed during meal time for health. There are many Chinese herbs for such purposes and an understanding of the side-effects due to toxicity through over-consumption exists even among ordinary users.

Toxicity is sometimes spoken in terms of "hot or yang chi" and "cold or yin chi". In fact most herbs including kitchen herbs have toxicity in varying degrees. Rare is the herb that has no toxic effects even taken over a long period and in large quantities. These are known as superior herbs. An example of such superior herb is Lingzhi or Ganoderma.

However it is not the purpose of this article to address these issues at depth. I just want to point out from the perspective of a user of "food-as-medicine" an important aspect in this practice. And that is the role that soup preparations can play in the health of people. Soup is universal to all cultures but the emphasis in this article is that we should take a deeper look at this.

Many people nowadays recognize the medicinal value in common kitchen herbs. In fact a whole industry based on manufacture and sale of herbal supplements some of which are made from common kitchen herbs like garlic, mint, tumeric, ginger have sprung up and continue to grow exponentially throughout the world.

But even as these nutritional supplements are becoming ever more popular they can never replace the efficacy of traditional preparations made from fresh herbs in soup form. In fact traditionally the Chinese go a step further to "double boil" their medicinal herbs so as to coax out their healing properties to the maximum. This involves boiling the herbs in water in a porcelain container placed inside another bigger pot filled with water.

Nowadays with the inexpensive and wide availability of crockpots, boiling such medicinal herbs in slow heat in these utensils will be the next best and more convenient method. And that should suffice.

If you will like to try out, you can boil ten smashed garlic bulbs in water with a little salt and some pepper and some meat in slow heat over an stove for a hour. If you are using a crockpot you will need to cook it for a few hours. Drink the soup for your dinner or lunch and feel the effect upon your body.

In the past you may have read and heard that garlic is such a wonder herb used universally in many cultures to treat their health problems. You may also have regularly consumed prepared garlic supplements.

Whatever benefits you may have derived from that, now after consuming such a garlic based soup you will be able to compare the difference. You will likely to feel a noticeable charge of energy in your body which you never experienced using garlic supplements. Drink such a garlic soup more often and you might find any chronic problems you may have like fatigue, ibs (irritable bowel syndrome) or snoring during sleep improving.

Modern medicine says that many of man's common ailments have something to do with germs, stress and what else. For instance people with irritable bowel syndrome have been told to their frustration that their problem is not organic but functional in nature and due to stress in their lives. As one sufferer said "I am sick of hearing repeatedly from my doctor that my IBS is due to stress". And why? Because such an diagnosis of their problem however valid did not help them in any way.

Traditional medicines like TCM however point to the accumulated toxins in the body or imbalance in the Yin and Yang forces for such a health problem. But then again it is not that every TCM physician could recommend a cure. At times one just have to research a bit, ask around and experiment to help oneself with a chronic ailment.

Nowadays with the Internet there is much that one can do to help oneself when there is no cure in sight for an ailment. The height of human folly would be to refuse alternative remedies for fear that "my doctor might not like it". That precisely was the stance that an friend down with terminal cancer took only when offered alternative remedies by others - only sadly to pass away soon after that.

Actually it is not so much that death has to be prevented since everyone dies sooner or later but rather that suffering should be reduced to the minimum. Knowing how cancer patients suffer terribly I feel that more should be done by individual themselves to find remedies for their health problems.

Well I am not about to recommend unknown exotic herbs to readers and advocate self-medication to any degree. I am pointing out that the vegetables in your kitchen can turn out to be your some of your best "medicines". You take them regularly but have you thought of preparing them in clear soup form more often to get the full benefit of their health-giving properties? The way they are prepared can make a big difference.

Ginger, garlic, onions, lemon grass and other kitchen herbs can be boiled with some meat for daily consumption. And talking about lemon grass reminds me that researchers had found that a popular tasty soup in Thailand called Tom Yam soup made mainly from galangal root, lemon grass, and kaffir leaves is effective in inhibiting tumors in the digestive tract.

With some modification in recipes to suit one's taste there is little stopping anyone from adopting some of these heath-giving herbal soup remedies from different parts of the world. Such a soup culture may go a long way to improve the health of everyone at home.