The Cabbage Soup Diet Debunked

Why Do People Go For The Cabbage Soup Diet? And What's Up With That Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe?

The cabbage soup diet, and the cabbage soup diet recipe are all over the web. All kinds of doctors and nutritionists say that it's the most boring, nutritionally unsound, and ineffective weight loss diet ever. Then they give you the same old boring cabbage soup diet recipe!

I put in my two bits worth, and added a different twist. I changed the recipe!

I came up with a cabbage soup diet recipe that's delicious and nutritious, with carbs, protein, herbs and spices, lots of veggies, even fat - and it's low calorie - of course, since soup is mostly water!

The cabbage soup diet is a very restricted, low calorie, quick weight loss diet. Nobody claims to have invented it. (Understandable!)

Calorie intake on the cabbage soup diet ranges from 800 - 1000 per day. It's supposed to make you lose 10 - 17 lbs, which could be possible on so few calories. However, you'd also starve yourself, risk dehydration, and likely gain it all back the next week, as you go to the opposite extreme, and eat 5000 calories a day.

Here's the cabbage soup diet: You make big pots of cabbage soup, which is just about all you eat for seven days straight, along with a few other foods. On day one, it's soup and fruit; day two - soup and veggies; day three - soup, fruit and veggies; day four - soup, bananas, skim milk; day five - soup, beef, tomatoes; day six - soup, beef, veggies; day seven - soup, brown rice, veg, fruit juice.

The cabbage soup recipe consists of water, cabbage, carrots, onions, peppers, canned tomatoes, celery, Lipton soup mix, and seasonings. There are some variations in the vegetables and seasonings, from one recipe to the next, but they're all much the same.

A few of the remarks I read about the cabbage soup diet:

• "puzzling"
• "not a shred of clinical or even anecdotal evidence to support the value of this regimen"
• "lacks ample quantities of everything from fiber to protein to calcium"
• "your family will probably kick you out because of all the flatulence"
• "this regimen is unsafe", "you better like cabbage soup!"
• "most of the weight loss is water"
• "the soup recipe ... extremely high sodium content and very little protein"
• "claims ... range from the ludicrous to the dubious"

The cabbage soup diet sounds to me like one of those elaborate online hoaxes. Whoever started it must be laughing themselves sick, as people follow it by the thousands, even write books about it, and claim that hospitals prescribe it for heart patients - if the surgery didn't kill them, the cabbage soup diet might!

Personally, I don't recommend the cabbage soup diet, or any other get-thin-quick diet. They're unhealthy, and they're not a long term weight loss solution. Read SV advice for dieting and weight loss, or send for the free Savvy Veg report on Vegetarian Nutrition.

Never say that I dissed the cabbage soup diet, and then didn't even give the recipe. I published a cabbage soup recipe, but it barely resembles the original. Now it's Delicious and Nutritious Cabbage Soup.

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