When the weekend comes, it is not easy to eat a meal at home, many people will choose to make a bowl of soup to treat themselves after a busy week. When it comes to soup, we have to mention the rich and delicious white bone soup. Bone broth is delicious and has been given the reputation of being a “great tonic”. But is it really that complementary? Bone soup is good to drink because of the high fat As the saying goes, “the chef’s soup, singing cavity”, “to taste good, set with soup to boil”. The deliciousness of soup has been praised since ancient times, of which bone soup can be divided into “clear bone soup” with a clear bottom and “white bone soup” with a strong flavor according to its color. The most common white bone soup in traditional Chinese cuisine is pork bone soup. The white color of pork bone soup is due to the large amount of fat in the bone marrow, and as the soup is simmered, the fine fat droplets are wrapped in protein and appear white in the scattered light, usually the thicker the white color, the more fat (unless the soup has floated a layer of oil). Of the three major energy-producing substances (fat, protein and carbohydrates), fat has the strongest energy-producing effect and gives the most flavorful taste, and when combined with salt, which excites sodium receptors, and nitrogenous leachate, which gives a fresh taste, bone broth is hard to beat. How much nutrition is in bone broth? Drinking soup for nutrition may not be reliable. Whether it is rice soup, vegetable soup, or bone broth, meat soup, because most of the soup is water, most of the real nutrients are still retained in the solids, although there are some minerals in the soup, dissolved in water vitamins, etc., but these beneficial ingredients are either too little or destroyed. At the same time, the better the soup is, the higher the sodium and fat content, which is more harmful than beneficial to our “nutritional surplus”, and for gout patients, we would even recommend them to “eat meat and abandon soup”. What about bone broth specifically? Although 99% of calcium in animals is stored in the bones, calcium can only be absorbed by the body if it enters the intestinal tract in an ionic state. Therefore, in order to distinguish whether or not oral food or supplements are suitable for calcium supplementation, the four factors of calcium content, solubility, absorption rate and cost should be taken into consideration. Bones contain calcium but are not soluble in water Just how much calcium is in bone broth? Research by Professor Jiang Zhuoqin of the Department of Medical Nutrition at Sun Yat-sen University shows that bone broth made with triple-distilled water (water distilled three times) with calcium and sodium removed often has a calcium concentration of less than 2 mg/100 ml, which is no different from broth. And changing the experimental conditions, such as using a pressure cooker instead of a tile pot, extending from cooking for 1 hour to 4 hours, putting more bones or choosing special parts (such as vertebrae), although it can slightly improve the concentration of calcium in bone broth, but the difference is not much, are not more than 4 mg/100 ml. What is the concept of “no more than 4 mg/100 ml”? We can make some comparisons. First of all, the calcium concentration of milk is more than 100 mg/100 ml, which is tens of times more than bone broth. Secondly, some information shows that the calcium of most lakes in China is around 2 mg/100 ml, and the hardness of tap water in Beijing is generally 300-600 ppm (the concentration expressed by the mass of solute in parts per million of the total solution mass, also known as parts per million concentration), 1 ppm as the unit of hardness represents 1 mg/l of calcium carbonate content, which means that the drinking water you drink is often more than bone broth It contains more calcium. Can you add vinegar? The reason why bone broth only has 4 mg/100 ml of calcium is that the large amount of calcium in bones is mainly present in the form of hydroxyapatite crystals, which are insoluble in water. Bones also contain trace amounts of non-crystalline bone salts, but the main calcium phosphate, calcium citrate, calcium carbonate are also difficult to dissolve in water, the general boiling soup is difficult to dissolve the calcium salts. Someone else said, then add vinegar can not? Indeed, the reaction between calcium salt and acetic acid can generate calcium acetate, and the solubility of calcium acetate at 100℃ is 29.7%, which is theoretically feasible. In the case of cooking purely with vinegar without water, the calcium concentration in bone broth can even be higher than that of milk. However, the practical value of this method is not high: firstly, the soup made in this way is hard to drink; secondly, a large amount of acetic acid will pollute the air with volatilization, corrode the furniture and even cause respiratory diseases; the most fundamental point is that boiling a pound of pig’s feet in this way will probably buy tens of yuan of vinegar …… Therefore, according to the recommended daily intake of 800 mg of calcium by the Chinese Nutrition Society Calcium intake of 800 mg, converted into bone broth then have to drink dozens of liters. If you really want to supplement calcium, you should eat three good meals and drink more milk. It is impossible for a chain of noodle shops to boil bone broth. For a chain of noodle shops, standardization of the process is necessary to ensure quality and consistency of taste and reduce costs in each branch. So naturally, it is not possible for each branch to set up a large pot with pork bones boiling soup. Soup kits are the secret weapon. So how is the soup ingredient package made? On the statement of a company’s official website, the whole process is: pig bones crushed -> feeding -> cooking -> separation -> concentration -> blending (add salt) -> sterilization -> filling -> packaging, etc. It should be said that the essence and home boiled bone broth is much the same, only through the modern process to complete the purification and sterilization, so that the quality is a little more uniform.