Have you ever wondered if the soup you are eating is making you put on weight?

The joys of cooking soup like pea and ham soup for me, brings me joy. So to be asked the question, is home made ham and pea soup fattening Diana made me think.

 Have I ever thought about it as a fattening soup?

Well, lets take a look at the ingredients.

Most recipes require ham of some sort. Lets shine the spotlight on Kassler german style bacon. Did you know that 100gms yields 146 calories.

My pea and ham soup calls for 125gms of pancetta or kasher bacon so 182 calories. The soup produces about 3 servings so for each serve 60 calories 

Now lets take a look at split peas. Split peas in my recipe call for one cup. They yield about 360 calories per cup. So per serving you will be eating about 90 calories.

So combined we are looking at around 150 calories plus 25 of butter and olive oil brings it to about 175 calories.

Ok. Lets compare that to other processed food items and there calories.

A 51 gram size mars bar has 230 calories!

!

A  store bought pea and ham soup  226!

Remember our home made soup is 175 calories.

So a home Pea and ham soup is not fattening! Whoop! Whoop!

Lets also look at the benefits of the ingredient with is split peas. With a generous 36% fibre content, 13% calcium and 8% potassium we are ahead already by way of our nutritional intake especially fibre. As adults we need a t least 25 for women and 38 for men. So our home made soup is providing at least 9 gms of our daily fibre intake without the high calories.

 When looking at calories you must consider its nutritional value and what the item of food you are consuming is being eaten for. A mars bar is a sack item full of sugar and has no nutritional value other than to spike the bejesus out of your blood sugars!

Education is key and creating healthy habits a must!

Happy soup making!

Diana