Why we should be drinking our soup

I love coffee and I love matcha, and I am definitely not here to tell anyone to stop drinking either, but lately I’ve been thinking about why almost every drink we reach for during the day has to contain caffeine, sugar, or both. Even the ones marketed to us as healthy somehow end up with oat milk, dates, honey, coconut sugar, vanilla syrup, sweeteners and a list of powders long enough to make you forget that you were simply thirsty in the first place.

Meanwhile, two of probably the oldest wellness foods in the world have been sitting there this entire time: bone broth and miso soup.

There is absolutely nothing new about either of them, which is precisely what I like. Bone broths have existed in different cultures for centuries, while miso has been part of Japanese food culture for generations. They don’t need to be reinvented, but I do think we should reconsider how we consume them. Instead of thinking about broth as something that belongs in a bowl at lunch or miso as the little soup that arrives before sushi, I like the idea of treating both exactly as we treat coffee or matcha: something warm that you pour into a cup and drink during the day.

A small bone broth at 11am, miso after Pilates, something warm at 4pm when you are hungry but dinner is still two hours away, or simply an alternative when you have already had enough coffee for one day.

No need to turn it into lunch. Just pour it into a cup and drink it.

WHY BONE BROTH MAKES SO MUCH SENSE AS A BEAUTY DRINK

Bone broth is almost ridiculously simple. Bones and connective tissues are slowly cooked in water for hours, releasing protein, gelatin, collagen-derived peptides and amino acids into the broth, which is why a properly made bone broth becomes almost jelly-like when it gets cold.

Collagen is the main structural protein in our skin and is also an important component of our bones, cartilage, tendons and connective tissues, so although beauty culture has somehow managed to make collagen sound as though its only purpose is preventing wrinkles, our entire body has considerably bigger plans for it.

When we eat collagen, the body digests those proteins into peptides and amino acids and uses those building blocks throughout the body, including for the normal maintenance and renewal of tissues.

This is what I find much more interesting than calling bone broth a “liquid facelift,” which it obviously isn’t. If I can replace one of the random drinks I consume during the day with something warm, satisfying, naturally sugar-free and containing actual protein and amino acids, that is already a very good reason to drink it.

It also makes sense when we start thinking about beauty beyond skin. Ageing well is not only about whether your face looks good at 45; it is also about joints, bones, muscles, connective tissue and how your body actually feels when you move. Collagen is an important part of cartilage and tendons, and the amino acids supplied by protein are used constantly for the maintenance and repair of tissues throughout the body.

As an everyday habit, bone broth is an incredibly easy way to get something genuinely nourishing into your body without turning wellness into another full-time job.

MISO IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY

Miso interests me for another reason entirely: fermentation.

Traditional miso is made from soybeans fermented with koji and salt, sometimes with rice or barley depending on the type. During fermentation, microorganisms and enzymes break down and transform the proteins and carbohydrates in the soybeans, creating the very particular salty, deep, umami flavour that makes a tiny amount of miso capable of making hot water taste like actual food.

And then there is the gut.

The gut microbiome is this enormous ecosystem of microorganisms living inside our digestive tract, and it is involved in far more than simply whether or not we feel bloated after lunch. It participates in digestion, metabolism and immune function, which is why fermented foods have become such an interesting part of the conversation around long-term health.

Good unpasteurized miso retains the live cultures created during fermentation, which is exactly why I would choose it when buying miso specifically as a daily wellness drink. Instead of adding another probiotic powder, another gummy or another supplement to the cupboard, you are simply eating an actual fermented food that has existed for centuries.

There is, however, one very important and very easy rule: don’t boil the hell out of it.

If you are buying unpasteurized miso for its live cultures, prepare your hot water or broth first, remove it from the heat and then stir the miso in at the end. You still get your beautiful hot cup, without destroying the live cultures you specifically chose the unpasteurized version for.

WHITE MISO, RED MISO, OR BOTH?

White miso, or shiro miso, is younger, lighter and generally made with a higher proportion of rice koji. It has a softer, slightly sweeter flavour and more of the natural carbohydrates coming from the rice, which makes it particularly easy to drink on its own. If I were introducing someone to the idea of drinking miso at 11am instead of another coffee, I would probably start here.

Red miso, or aka miso, goes through a longer fermentation and ageing process, which creates its much darker colour and that stronger, saltier, deeper umami flavour. The longer ageing and browning also create higher levels of melanoidins, antioxidant compounds responsible for part of that deep colour and complexity.

So they have quite different personalities. White miso is softer, sweeter and probably easier as an everyday drink, while red miso is deeper, more intense and particularly interesting for the antioxidant compounds created during its longer fermentation.

SO WHAT ARE THEY ACTUALLY DOING FOR YOUR GUT?

This is where I think bone broth and miso are often incorrectly put into the same “gut health” category, because they are doing completely different things.

Miso brings the fermented-food side of the equation. You are consuming a food that has been transformed by fermentation, together with its fermentation-derived compounds and, when you choose an unpasteurized product, live cultures. It brings fermented food naturally into your daily diet without needing to turn gut health into another complicated routine.

Bone broth comes from the other direction. It isn’t fermented and it isn’t a probiotic drink; what it brings is protein, gelatin and amino acids released from connective tissue during cooking. Those amino acids are used throughout the body as building blocks for proteins and tissues, including the tissues of the digestive system itself.

This is exactly why I like the idea of having both rather than deciding which one is “better.”

NO SUGAR. NO SYRUP. NO NEED TO MAKE IT COMPLICATED.

The other reason I love these two drinks is their simplicity.

A proper bone broth can simply contain bones, water, vegetables, herbs and spices. A miso drink can be good miso dissolved into hot water or dashi, perhaps with ginger, seaweed or spring onion if you want something more interesting.

Neither needs added sugar, artificial sweeteners or syrup. They are savoury, which is actually part of the point.

STOCK IT LIKE COFFEE, NOT LIKE FOOD

Have it in the morning when you want something savoury, after gym, between appointments, during the afternoon crash, when you get home and dinner isn’t for another two hours, or simply because you have already had enough coffee for one day.

Bone broth gives us protein, gelatin, collagen-derived peptides and amino acids that our body uses for skin, joints, bones and connective tissues. Miso gives us fermentation, live cultures when unpasteurized, soy nutrients and antioxidant compounds, with white, red and awase versions giving us different flavours and fermentation profiles.

They are completely different drinks, which is exactly why there is room for both.

Nothing revolutionary, nothing invented for Instagram, and definitely nothing new. Just two extremely old foods that make a surprising amount of sense.