[Jackie07]

Pam,

It's hard to say. More nutrient can be lost during the cooking process. However, the soup probably provides extra benefit such as fiber and starch because you will eat the cooked barley.

There's a Chinese saying regarding medicine: "Supplementing with medicine is not as good as supplementing with food." A lot of the Chinese herbs are customed to be cooked with chicken soup or multigrain (such as barley) soup. My Father used to put strips of Ginseng into a bottle of Chinese Whisky and he would drink a shot during cold winter nights. [By the way, he's just turned 96]There's a famous recipe in Taiwan for 'Dang-quei Duck'. Again, it's a soup (cooked with the herb called 'Dang-quei' and a whole duck) though we are encouraged to eat the meat and the herb after we drink the liquid. Often street vendors could be found selling rice noodle soup cooked with Dang-quei duck. Late-night workers would stop by and eat a bowl of the noodle soup with a can of beer or a shot of whishky. Now these 'vendors' are available in the food court of shopping malls.

I drink a couple of cups of 'Yang-sheng' soup daily. It's cooked with (dried) dates, gochi and several different kinds of 'mild' ginseng. When my niece was here late spring, she used the same ingredients to cook a chicken soup and it taste pretty good. Turned out her Mother, my sister-in-law, had improvised it. If it's good for the body as medicine, it's good for the body as food!