Good Taste: Chicken soup for the internet addiction


a bunch of different soups!
(Lyndzi Ramos | Daily Trojan)

If you were anywhere in Los Angeles last week, you probably heard someone look at the sky and say “we needed this” as rain flooded the city. Like any good Californian, I took the rain as a sign to make soup. In my case, I made a pot of vegetarian chili — packed with beans, warm spices and fall vegetables.

As I let the steam from the chili fog up my glasses, I thought about how soup crosses cultural barriers. From ramen to matzo ball soup, every community has its own version of soup. For a food to have such a dominant global presence, there must be some magic to it.

My favorite soup has always been my mom’s kadhi, a delightfully tangy soup made with gram flour, yogurt and a plethora of spices. Whenever kadhi is on the table, we end our meal by filling our plate with everything on the table and drowning it in kadhi. As you stir the kadhi with rice, lentils and vegetables, it transforms these separate pieces of a meal into a complex mix of flavors and textures that bleed into one another.

The magic of soup is its ability to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts. This collection of spices, vegetables, lentils and meats turns into a heartwarming meal. Whether you grew up eating gumbo or borscht, you know the transformative power of good soup.

In the same way that soup brings ingredients together, it also brings people together. Considering the number of ingredients that go into most soups, the average soup recipe makes much more than one serving. Even a standard can of Campbell’s tomato soup serves at least two people.

Making soup is an invitation to create community in a time when human connection has become a scarce resource. In a 2020 survey, 36% of American adults reported feeling lonely “frequently,” “almost all the time or all the time” — with 43% of young adults reporting that the coronavirus pandemic had made them feel even more isolated.

Considering its detrimental health effects, loneliness is a developing 21st century epidemic. Chronic loneliness increases the likelihood of developing heart disease, stroke, a weakened immune system, depression, anxiety, long-term disability and a variety of other adverse health outcomes.

In a world full of apps designed to make us feel more connected, we somehow feel more alone than ever. Social media is sold as a way for us to stay in contact with those we love, but it often replaces more meaningful interactions. Rather than checking in on one another, we rely on Instagram stories and BeReal comments to keep our community alive.

 A recent study showed that approximately a third of people communicate with their loved ones less frequently since they follow them on social media. Though social media can be a powerful tool to help us maintain our relationships, the screen separation can make it harder to maintain vulnerable and honest communication.

Not only does it decrease the quantity and quality of our interactions, but it also feeds our insecurities. Social media is a space of constant comparison, where we see the best moments of the parties we weren’t invited to and the people we can never become.

These comparisons manage to make us feel alone in our loneliness. While we watch the people we follow have the best days of their lives, we feel as though our lives are uniquely miserable, as if no one else experiences those same moments of heartbreak or anxiety.

Social media often pulls us away, but soup brings us together. It’s a classic remedy not even Instagram can defeat.

Soup is a dish best made for a group; it encourages us to make space for the people that we love. It fosters those moments of laughter and nourishment at the dinner table when we feel most connected to and loved by the people around us.

Food ensures our bodies continue to function, but soup ensures that our need for connection is satisfied. Soup is the perfect opportunity to invite those around us, from lifelong connections to newly developed acquaintances, to find warmth in a bowl of phở and friendship.

There are few things that have the power to soothe our body and soul the way soup can. As we feel more and more disconnected from one another, the healing power of soup is stronger than ever. 

Even if it’s not a rainy day, when you feel social media pull you into a downward spiral, a pot of soup and a dinner invitation can melt away the insecurities and disconnection.

Reena Somani is a graduate student writing about food and its social implications. Her column, “Good Taste,” runs every other Wednesday.