The Cabbage Soup Diet

You may have heard of a number of fad diets over the years.  These might include everything from the fasting diet to the grapefruit diet.  Among the better-known experimental diets is what’s known as the cabbage soup diet—a variation of the so-called soup diet.  The question is, is the cabbage soup diet effective?

Advocates of the cabbage soup diet say that it is entirely appropriate if you need to lose weight fast, particularly for a special occasion, such as a wedding or class reunion.  The diet is a low-fat, high-fiber meal plan that can help you to achieve quick weight goals before you graduate onto a more moderate long-term diet program.  The cabbage soup diet is not recommended, however, for the long term.   They say that it should only be used for seven days at a time, with at least two weeks of respite in between.

Here’s how it works:  On the first day, you can eat all the fruit you want—except bananas.  You can also eat as much cabbage soup as you can handle.  Your beverages should be limited to unsweetened teas, cranberry juice, and water. 

On the second day, you can eat all of the raw and cooked vegetables you want, along with the cabbage soup.  At dinner time, you can partake of a baked potato with butter. 

On the third day, you can eat all the soup, fruits, and vegetables you desire. 

On the fourth day, you’ll try to lessen your desire for sweets by eating as many as eight bananas and drinking as many glasses of skim milk as you would like.  Of course, you’ll be pairing it with cabbage soup.   

On the fifth day, eat your cabbage soup with ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six tomatoes.   

Meanwhile, on the sixth day, eat as much beef and vegetables as you want, as long as you also eat some soup. 

Day seven is reserved for brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices, vegetables, and more cabbage soup. 

Obviously, there are both advantages and disadvantages to the cabbage soup diet approach.   You can eat as much of the allowable foods as you want.   The meal plan can also help to prepare you for another, long-term diet.

On the negative side, you might find the soup to be bland.  It can even be depressing eating the same cabbage soup day in and day out—even if it is only for a week.   Some people who have tried this diet say that it has made them light-headed and weak.  Some have also reported decreased levels of concentration, which can be difficult for someone who has an especially challenging job.

Yet, it should be noted that some dieters say that the weight loss is well worth the momentary discomfort.  They notice that the adverse side-effects of the diet are not long-lasting—they’ll only last for a week at most. 

At times, the cabbage soup diet has been referred to as the “Mayo Clinic Diet” or the “Sacred Heart Hospital Diet.”  However, there seems to be little indication that the diet has anything to do with either institution.