Health & Life

The Harmful Health Effects of Eating Rice and Soup Together, a Common Habit among Many Vietnamese People

Eating rice with soup is a common practice among many Vietnamese people because they believe that adding soup to rice makes it easier to eat.

Administrator

12 November, 2023

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Traditional Vietnamese meals often have to ensure that there is soup, stir-fry, main dish, and white rice. However, when they were poor, the main dish could be missing but soup or vegetable broth could not. In times of poverty, there were times when there was only vegetable soup to make it “easier to swallow”. This has led to the habit of many people eating rice with soup.

From a nutritional and health standpoint, this is a harmful habit.

When we mix the soup with rice, it will make us swallow faster, so we don’t chew the rice well. However, chewing well helps increase enzyme secretion and better food grinding. Therefore, digestion will be better and eating will be slower. Mixing the soup with rice makes us swallow quickly, besides the burden on the digestive system, it also makes us eat excessively. Our brain hasn’t received the signal that we’re full yet, but we’ve already eaten too much rice.

The rice goes into the stomach without being properly crushed, so the stomach is more burdened, while it should be the job of the mouth and teeth. Therefore, eating quickly without chewing well increases the risk of stomach problems and makes digestion more difficult. Many people have poor digestion, so they feel full and tend to use the method of mixing the soup with rice to swallow faster. Then it creates a vicious cycle of poor nutrition, poor digestion, loss of appetite, mixing the soup with rice again, and poor digestion again.

Mixing the soup with rice dilutes the enzymes with soup water, so the process of nutrient absorption is reduced, causing more undigested and loose stools.

For young children, the habit of mixing soup with rice to prevent picky eating will ultimately make them even pickier eaters because they only swallow. For children, mixing soup with rice makes them swallow quickly and not chew enough, which also has negative consequences for jaw development.

Drinking water while eating – similar to mixing soup with rice

Many people have the habit of having a glass of water next to them while eating. Drinking during a meal is also harmful, similar to mixing soup with rice because it also dilutes the digestive enzymes. Therefore, this habit should also be avoided.

The best way to ensure digestion and absorption is

We should eat vegetables first so that the rapid absorption of sugar from rice into the blood can be prevented to avoid diabetes.

When eating, we should eat dry rice with vegetables, meat, or fish. After finishing eating, drink a little soup, not too much soup.

For young children, they should be encouraged to eat dry food without soup, only a few spoons of soup should be given after they finish eating. The soups should be eaten separately.

When eating, it is essential to develop the habit of eating slowly and chewing carefully to ensure that the food is thoroughly ground. This habit needs to be cultivated from a young age to help children change their parents’ and grandparents’ eating habits.