Something that may have been passed along to you generation to generation..
Misleading labels, high amounts of sodium, and unnecessary ingredients are just a few reasons to be choosier about which soup you eat.
Maybe your mom always gave you chicken noodle soup when you were sick or to warm you up on a cold winter’s night.
And maybe you do the same for yourself and your family, too.
For many people, chicken noodle soup covers the nutritional spectrum from comfort food to home remedy.
All bouillon cubes contain glutamate, a flavoring that’s used to enhance the taste. Consumers seem to enjoy this ingredient, since the broths that result from bouillon cubes, taste really good. However, you shouldn’t use them to replace healthy ingredients.
Monosodium glutamate can cause a condition known as the, ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’. The symptoms of this condition are: headaches, pressure in the temples and a stiff neck.
It can also trick consumers into thinking that the broth contains more chicken than it actually does. Moreover, bouillon cubes stimulate your appetite, so they may promote obesity.
They also contain saturated fats, and even if it’s a small quantity, saturated fats make consuming bouillon cubes quite unhealthy.
Regarding nutrients, they don’t even come close to the amount of nutrients that homemade broths contain. They make very low-calorie broths, with around 11 kcal, per 8.5 fluid ounce serving (dehydrated cubes), and 19 kcal per serving in liquid broths.
Homemade broths provide more energy for your body: the same 8.5 fluid ounce serving contains 22 kcal. As a hydration choice they can be quite useful. They are a good option for people that need a liquid, or weight loss diet.
Bouillon cubes also have low amounts of protein. A homemade broth that boils for several hours, contains double the amount of protein, than broths made from a cube. Because of this, homemade broths provide us with 40 percent more protein, than cube broths. This makes bouillon cubes less healthy.
The major advantage of these cubes is how inexpensive they are. Making one liter of broth, using two cubes, can cost less than 10 cents.
Today, there’s only one bouillon cube brand that makes chicken and beef bouillon cubes without using flavor enhancers. It’s the brand Avecrem and is sold in their 100 percent natural range.
This brand was able to produce a bouillon cube without any additives in the chicken flavor, and with just one additive in the beef flavor. In addition, they make healthier bouillon cubes because they use very little salt -around 39.3 percent, while their traditional chicken stock has a salt content of 54.3 percent.
As you’ve seen, bouillon cubes aren’t very healthy. Which is why we’ll give you a recipe to make homemade chicken stock, providing you with more nutrients and less additives than bouillon cubes.