It’s Not About the Damn Gluten-Free Soup

It’s much more.

Cream of chicken soup is one of those store-bought items you automatically know – as a gluten-free girl – typically has gluten in it.

 But it’s about so much more than the damn gluten-free soup.

Understanding this soup story is necessary. It changed my life….

Six years ago, I wanted to make a casserole that required cream of chicken soup. It was hard to find gluten-free cream of chicken soup at the time, and I decided I just wouldn’t make the casserole. We were at the store, and I was reading food labels, and I was SO tired of reading labels as I searched for the villain named Gluten. My husband, always the fixer, was listening to me as I talked to myself trying to figure out what to do and he said,

“Anything we can buy in the store we can make ourselves.”

This sentence has stuck with me through the years because it’s a life changing understanding. So many of us believe that we are at the mercy of the supermarket. We are not. It’s a truly empowering thought.

It becomes even more empowering if you are a food label reader due to gluten issues, because it’s not JUST about the gluten. When you start looking at a food label, such as cream of chicken soup, you’re going to discover so many other ingredients that are vague, unnecessary and potentially harmful in the long term.

So, six years ago, I learned to make my own cream of chicken soup without gluten. But I also learned to make cream of chicken soup that wasn’t full of additives. I made a soup that didn’t send me down a rabbit hole reading an ingredient label as I tried to figure out what “chicken meat” or “chicken fat” on a label meant. The word “chicken” can hold many different meanings on a food label – for example, chicken meat can be ground chicken bones.  

Society creates confusion where there should be none – this is by design. Often, when we are confused, we simply trust the system (such as a grocery store system), hoping that the system is guiding us with good intentions.  If product marketing is stellar and resonates with your emotions and experiences, it becomes even easier to convince us that the product is safe and okay to put in our bodies. If I’m in a hurry, a store-bought soup can be a huge help when I’m cooking. But, when you are forced to examine labels, due to a food allergy like gluten, you get even more muddled and perplexed. I want to trust the food label, because if I can trust something, it becomes a support system. Support systems allow us to thrive, and the food system is one system we count on for a basic need.

It is my experience that many systems in life want one thing. Power. Systems come in all sizes, and they use tactics to gain their power.

Ever heard of the term gaslighting? It’s when someone makes you believe in a reality that doesn’t exist.  When someone gaslights you, they use emotion, words, and actions to make you believe something that benefits THEM – THEIR chosen reality. That’s also called marketing. The soup company I relied on for cream of chicken soup, had been marketing to me since I was a child.  I trusted them; their labels brought up memories of soup with grilled cheese sandwiches at lunch with my sisters. The label made me feel safe and happy.  

I mean…it’s almost like the soup company cares about me.

Full stop. No.

That soup does NOT care about me. To be honest, it’s rare that anyone who holds power over you cares about you, especially if you are filling their bank, their emotional supply, whatever that power is that they need.

So, let’s go back to the little things – like a store-bought can of soup.  Little things understood can make BIG things understood, and if necessary, you can walk away from these things as needed – once you understand the motive and how it impacts YOU.

If I’m confused by a soup label I’m out – meaning, I do not engage. Especially when I recognize I have another choice, like making my own cream of chicken soup.

To be honest, as I stood in that store aisle, I would never have bothered to read the ingredients on the soup can, except for the fact that I needed to make sure gluten wasn’t in there.  As a result, I discovered that there were so many OTHER things that didn’t need to be in that soup as well.

I walked away from the soup aisle. I made my own cream of chicken soup.

There’s a reason our country is full of unhealthy and sick people. We’ve been gaslighted to trust a food system that is set up to make us sick. Why? Because it makes money. It empowers a few.

I create my own soup now and I share these recipes as I fine-tune them. My life is always in draft form.

It’s empowering and I hope sharing what I know empowers others. Do I make everything from scratch? Of course not. We do the best we can.

Guess how many ingredients are in basic cream of chicken soup? Three. Yes, seriously, three. It’s wild when your reality gets twisted, and then you unravel it to discover something simple and easy.  The three ingredients are chicken broth, milk and corn starch – check out my recipe if you want to make it! It’s a breath of fresh air.

Leaving behind a can of soup at the supermarket is a step towards freedom that we forget we have. We can create our own soups, our own reality – our own world.  

It’s a quiet revolution – a revolution that begins in your mind, comes to fruition in your actions, and creates a sense of self that no one can take from you.

Any decision you make that pulls you away from a system, designed to hold power over you, is empowering. It’s revolutionary. It pisses a lot of people off. Keep doing it.

That decision you make might start with a can of soup. Small changes create big changes – they form roots that steady you.

So, going gluten free? It’s much more.

I can teach anyone to go gluten free. But what I can’t teach, but can share, is my experience about how to create your own system when the systems around you are failing you, harming you… and ultimately harming those that you love. I can share my world. My experience exists.  And if you recognize yourself here, welcome – I’m so glad you’re here.