Do you look for warming, filling comfort food as the weather cools down. We are always on the hunt for some yummy and filling fresh soups, but really, how did they stack up when we take a close look at the nutrition labels?
Hi, I'm Susy Burrow and I'm Liam Wood, and.
It's two of us stays leading dietitians who specialize in evidence face nutrition. We bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find in the supermarket. Now we have covered soups before the end, but since it is arctic temperatures in Sydney at the moment and it is absolutely soup season.
And as dietitians, we love soup because nutritionally it's so rich, and there's some immune related benefits depending on the type you've cooked, and it can be a really cost effective meal at the moment, particularly with the cost of fresh fruit and veggies through the roof. As a way to get a really good dose of your veggies each day in a warming and cost effective way. We love soups. We love them as an accompaniment to lunch, we love them as a light dinner, and there's a growing range,
which is fantastic. So you know, we've obviously looked at canned soups, and there's also the Tetra Fresh kind of packs, but the ones we've chosen today are the fresh ones. So these are the ones that you find. It's sort of at the front of the supermarkets. There's sort of a Woolies brand often and a Cohls brand, and then
there's some different independent ones. And I think it's pretty safe to say, on the wholy end, they're pretty good, aren't they Like it's a good choice nutritionally across the board, So we're certainly not saying when we take a closer look at these that any of them aren't great, but of course, as is the case, there's some that are better than others. So you've chosen the three soups today, so feel free to chime in with any of the rationale as I take us through them. And I just
use these all the time with my clients. I don't know if Bullies are still doing the four for ten dollars each week, but it's so cheap and such a great lunch choice. So you can sort of give some background to why you chose these ones. But the first one we're going to take a look at is the Woolies fresh chicken and corn, which is a three hundred gram pot, which is just such a great serving size in itself, really cost effective. They've been discounted here just
two dollars fifty per serve. When we take a look at the ingredient list, the first ingredients water, which is what you would expect with soup. Sweet corn is twenty three percent as RSPCA approof chicken at twelve percent. Then there's some potato at seven percent, onion cream with a little bit of milk, ginger one point five but just my eyes aren't great, so feel free to create me one point five percent tapio gustache, a bit of fish sauce for flavor, a bit of natural chicken stock powder,
some spring greens. That sounds very nice, even though it's a very small amount. Sesame oil, sugar, salt, pepper. Now, first of all, we will say that when we see things like salt and sugar down the bottom, I wouldn't be the least bit concerned because it's in such a tiny, tiny amount. If it's not in the first couple of ingredients, I wouldn't be overly worried, so they're referring to it
as one serve, which is fantastic. So it's just shy of a thousand killer jewels, or about two hundred and ten calories per serve, getting ten grams of protein, which is very nice for that container. Very lean. I need two point nine grams of fat, so a low fat food, low and saturated fat at one point two getting twenty four point six grams of carbohydrates. So in bread terms, that's about the equivalent of two slices of very good quality, dense grain bread a little bit of sugar in it.
Coming in at four point eight grams per serve, it's probably a little bit higher than we would want in a soup three point three grams of dietary fiber and seven hundred and fifty milligrams of sodium. Now, soup and salt is tricky because if you have a soup that doesn't have any salt, it will taste like garbage. So ideally, as a reference, we try and go less than three hundred milligrams per hundred, which is what this is coming in out at two hundred and fifty, which is giving
us seven to fifty for the container. So it's certainly not low in sodium, but it's not overly high. And if I was rating this soup, I would give this soup bit of six or seven out of ten. You know, it's pretty good. It's not the most amazing soup out there. It's not the first. I haven't tried it. The chicken's okay, I don't know, what do you think?
Yeah, I like it. I chose it. I think it's I think it's good. I would go maybe five and a half six out of ten. Now, the next one I've chosen is very similar, but it's the Coals one. So the Coals one is basically similar. We've got the same three hundred grand pot. It's the coals chicken and corn soup, so it's the same cost. It was down down as the coal saying goes to two dollars fifty, So both the woolies and the Coals one.
Were three dollars down down.
I actually did work at Cols when I was a young teenager, so doesn't work, so there were both three dollars. Yeah, mom does actually work for colors still, but no affiliation. We're definitely not sponsored with coals or anything like that, you know, I have transparency the am that is what it does work at cool. No, it doesn't work at used to. You see many many used to anyway. So
two dollars fifty are pot so very similar. And when we look at the ingredients, we've got water as a top ingredient, corn cooked RSPCA, chicken breast, So the corn is twenty percent, the chicken breast is eight percent. We've got onion, potato, corn start cross, ginger, soy sauce, canola oil, spring onion, vegetables, stock seasoning, sesame oil, crush, garlic, salt, and white pepper. So I love that neither of these had MSG. And the ingredients when you look at them
are actually very very similar. But when you look at the nutrition profile, SUSI, they're quite different. So I prefer the coals one because it's lower calorie, higher protein, lower saturated fat, and higher fiber basically for the same thing. So I might be splitting hairs, but I actually really actually prefer the taste a little bit more of the
coals one as well. So what I've been doing this last week is really having a little pot of this chicken and corn soup with a big bag of half of the Asian salad slow that I really love as well, So it's like a crispy Asian noodle salad with some chicken and corn soup on the side. So I'm sort of doing it, but a summer and winter combined. But I'm a big fan of this one. So per serving in the Coals One, we've got seven seven six kilo
jewels or about one hundred and eighty five calories. We've got seventeen point four grams of protein, which is a whooping amount of protein in a small pot of soup, six point six grams of with only one point two grams being saturated, ten point eight grams of carbohydrate, so quite a low carbohydrate load there, and down from the twenty four grams and the Woolies one, so lower carbohydrate as well, four point eight grams of sugar, six point
six grams of natural fibers, so that's actually a really good amount of fiber in a small pot of soup. And six hundred milligrams of sodium, so slightly less sodium as well than the Wooliese brand. So pretty much all in all, SUSI, every macronutrient profile of the Coals one trumps the wool As one.
You have found an outstanding product because you know the difference. So I was thinking, how can that be the case. It's got seventeen grams of protein. So because the Woolies one's twelve percent chicken and this is only eight you know why, because this is specified chicken breast eight percent. So the chicken they're putting in to the Woolies one is obviously dodge. Yeah.
Actually it's actually chunks of chicken in the coals one. If you're just hit it, it's really nice because I can't stand that, Like I call it fake chicken. You know how sometimes to process chick if you buy those, yeah, you buy those salad packs or not the salad packs like the you know what I'm trying to you know, I'm trying to say, the pre made salad. It's cube.
It's like pressed. It's like a pressed chicken, like a process meat.
It's so processed. I can't Oh, I can't do it. I can't do it. So this is actual chicken breast versus the Woolworst one uses the processed type chicken.
Which is why the saturated fat is so much lower in this one as well.
Yeah, and they also add cream into the wol West one as well, which is why the saturated fats higher.
Yes, this is a good find. You've done well finding this. This is really good for that reason.
Thank you. Yeah, I love it. You should try it. It's delicious.
This is an outstanding product. Eight almost eighteen grams of product for.
One hundred and eighty five calories, right.
Eighteen grams of protein in a soup like that and chicken breast for that much fiber outstanding. You've done well to find that. Yeah, really good.
Thank you. So for lunch today I had a pot of this chicken and corn soup and a pot of the coals vegetable soup as well. That was my lunch.
That is a really smart find. And that's that's the difference people in the label. So look, you know, people listeners, it pays to read our nutrition label. Put it that away.
Fans so like that.
So they've just put chicken, so basically they're just chucking in. I'd say, the thigh, the wing, anything at twelve percent, which is why it's much higher and saturated fat and low in protein. Half the protein.
It's good, isn't it For the same price, for the same price, the same amount like both three hundred grams.
Yeah, and then you're here getting chicken breast and almost twenty grams of protein, far less filler carbohydrate which is what's happening in Willis, and much more dietary fiber. That is really good, finely and well done.
Thank you very much. Now, the third one i've I've picked, and I must admit I haven't actually looked too closely at this, but it picked my interest because it was Sports Dietitian approved. So it's a new Coal's brand. It's called Perform, which is you know, pretty smart, called Perform Build. And they had some soups, they had a couple of pre made meals and they all had this sports Dietitian tick. Now I dridge it a little bit of investigating, and
I don't know who the sports Dietitian is. They didn't list the name, but I imagine, you know, any accredit at Sports Diitian in Australia is wonderful. So this one is the Coals Perform chicken kale and quinoa soup. So it's five dollars, so it's more expensive, but it's four hundred grams, so we are getting more soup. It's a bigger pot of soup. Put it that way, and we look at
the ingredient list. Water is our top ingredient. We've got cooked Australian RSPCA approved chicken breasts, so again we're using the chicken breast at sixteen percent, so it is more it's double the amount of chicken than the little pot of chicken and corn soup contained. The next ingredient is
blody beans at eight percent. Then we've got some tomato a citidi regulators, rizzoni pasta, some kale, some onion, carrot celery, tomato paste, kinoar at two percent, some red capsicum, some canola oil, some zucchini, some vegetable stock, seasoning, natural flavoring, no MSG, with some salt, crushed garlic, cornstarch and black pepper around us out. So a very what I would call clean nutrition label. There, sousi and some of our favorite ingredients like things like kale and onion and garlic
and blotti beans we love. And we come over to the nutrition panel. We've got one and thirty jewels or two hundred and seventy calories, so still a really light kind of lunch option if you're using this for lunch. I personally would use this plus something else. It's not enough for a breastfeeding, very tall mum like myself, but two hundred and seventy calories is really good. It's a very light meal for those who wanted. Twenty seven point two grams of protein, a whopping amount of protein, six
point eight grams of fat, which is fine. Only one point two grams of that is saturated, so that's very good, and point zero four grams of that as trans fat. Twenty point eight grams of carbohydrate, so really nice even dose of carbohydrate considering it's got beans and it had
the Rhizoni pasture in there as well. Five point two grams of sugar, which is just naturally occurring through the things like the tomato and the carrots and stuff, eight grams of natural dietary fiber, which I think is outstanding in a soup, and six hundred and eighty grams of sodium. So I think this is again a really great option. So the price point, it's five dollars. It was on sale. No, actually sorry, it was two for nine dollars, was the sale.
So they're five dollars separately, so it's double of the chicken and corn one. But it's actually got some really good quality ingredients in there. And if you're using this as a post workout meal, if your goal is to build some muscle mass, twenty seven grams of protein, it's a huge whack it in a little pot of soup and it looks really quite filling and hearty. Actually bought
one and David ate it. I'll tell you. Oh, I don't know if I should say this might turn some of our listeners off, but I said, what did you think about it? He said it looked like dog food, and I said, what do you mean? He turned out. I always tell him to never hit plastic up. So he turned out the soup into a bowl and it was like you know when you do that with like a can of tin spaghetti, and it holds the shape
and it holds the mole. He goes, it looked like bloody dog food, but he goes, it tasted pretty good. So their presentation perhaps.
Wasn't there editing here or very raw.
The presentation perhaps wasn't quite on point, but the taste, he said, was very good. And I didn't see him snacking afterwards, so I think it was actually, you know, quite feeling it was nowhere near his caler requirements. He would have needed a second lunch, but as sort of a mini meal or a bit of a fill of to proper lunch, it kept him going. He said it was quite tasty. So I really like this one from the nutritional perspective, but also the ingredient perspective as well.
I like it a lot as well, and I probably would use it very quickly in my meal plans for clients who I'm trying to get having a few light meals each week, so to buffer them on the weekend, so if they can start the week on some light, quick and easy dinners at home, but they'n always in need of options, and I think that's an outstanding option.
Yeah, for five dollars for dinner.
Exactly cost effective, great on the goal at work. I think that's fantastic and I'll pay a lot more attention to that range in coals now. I had seen a couple of the meals come up, and I think i'd actually bought one for Chris the other night. I haven't asked him how it was, So you know, this is really positive for supermarkets to be doing more of these, particularly as we've said at times where food budgets are tight.
Fresh food is incredibly expensive and people are looking for healthy, convenient options, so well done coals, they're outstanding and you can just see the quality on those labels. So the more of those we have because traditionally, and let's be honest, a lot of the meals and even soups that we're in that convenient section, we're really heavy car based foods and still are to a certain extent. You know, there's a lot of rice, there's a lot of pasta, there's
a lot of filler vegetables in the soup. So to see a few of these standouts which are much much higher in protein and really good vegetable profiles.
The dietary fiber and fiber I'm really happy with the dietary fib and not adding extra things like theirs sugars in cream as well. So actually some good options without all the additives, and.
That's what supermarkets should be doing. You know, they've got this duopoly where they run the nutrition of the country and they're in a really powerful position to give Australians better, quick and easy options that are also quality because people, you know, I'm thinking at my local coals it's downstairs from a big gym, and the guys will come in post workout and they are looking for high protein, lean options, and so they study the labels. They know what they're
buying and they don't want crappy foods. So it's really really good to see this as an initiative, and we've got to support it. You know, if we want supermarkets to make these healthier choices, we have to invest in and buy them. So hopefully they do taste good and it gives us lots of options. But I guess the take home message is generally speaking, any pre made soup
is going to be pretty good. And then within that category, you're looking for ones that have got a higher vegetable and or protein content and less additives and less sodium. And you know, like we said, if you're paying for chicken, you want chicken breast and you want to soup that reflects that in the quality. So a quick scan of your ingredient list will really tell you a lot about
what you need to know with the soups. And there's a growing range out there, so you won't be putting a foot wrong this winter if you add more of those into your weekly meal plans all right, Willye andne thanks for going and finding those soups. That was a really really good find, that chicken and corn one, so I wouldn't have picked that up. Well done, thank you, But that brings us to the end of our Nutrition
Couch product review on fresh soups for another week. If you see any others you'd like us to have a look at, or you want to share with us, we love to see your feedback, so feel free to contact us on our social media. We scan our Instagram daily and we really take on board your feedback and of course our week episode drops every Sunday morning and our products come in on a Wednesday. We love you feedback, we love your questions, and we particularly love your support
getting our numbers up there. So thank you for listening to another episode of the Nutrition Couch podcast and we will see you on Sunday morning for our regular weekly drop. Thanks for listening.
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