The Cabbage Soup Die
Soup Diet - There is no
single Cabbage Soup Diet. Many versions of this very limited diet have been
around for years. A few books have documented different variations of this
simple, anonymously written diet plan, which surprisingly has survived the test
of time.
The Cabbage
Soup Diet is a strict list of what to eat each day for a week. Of course,
cabbage soup is the main item. A few other low-calorie foods are also on the
list.
You're only
supposed to do a week at a time. Still, because the menu is so limited, you may
get bored. And because you won't make any lasting changes in your eating
habits, you may go right back to your old habits afterward.
The Cabbage
Soup Diet: What You Can Eat
The
seven-day Cabbage Soup Diet plan includes two daily bowls of fat-free cabbage
soup and a short list of fruit, vegetables, skim milk, and meat. The plan
encourages drinking plenty of water and avoiding alcohol.
The cabbage
soup recipe varies slightly among different versions of the diet. But it
basically includes cabbage and assorted low-calorie vegetables such as onions
and tomatoes, and is flavored with onion soup mix, bouillon, and tomato juice.
The Cabbage
Soup Diet: How It Works
The CabbageSoup Diet has so few calories that people will lose weight rapidly on the
week-long plan. There is nothing magical about cabbage or cabbage soup that
fosters weight loss. It's the low-calorie nature of the diet plan that does the
trick.
The problem
is that most of the weight lost comes from fluids, not fat, and you'll get it
back when you start eating normally.
There are
two other big issues: boredom and not enough nutrition.
First,
boredom: Are you OK with eating virtually the same foods every day for a week?
More
importantly, the calories on the plan are dangerously low (approximately
800-1,050) calories per day. Experts agree that any diet under 1,200 calories
per day is unsafe unless you're under a doctor's care. It's almost impossible
to get all the nutrients you need and satisfy hunger in so few calories. A
bottomless bowl of cabbage soup, along with a restricted list of allowed foods,
doesn't give your body the nourishment you need each day.
Expert
Advice
"It is
a monotonous, short-term fix, severely lacking in nutrients, which will result
in a weight loss that is primarily water and not the essential fat loss that is
so important to improving health," says Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, director
of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.
Diekman
worries that diets like the Cabbage Soup Diet keep people in the
"yoyo" cycle of losing and regaining weight.
As a
registered dietitian, she urges dieters to find another plan that is balanced,
varied, and includes regular physical activity. The only positive aspect of the
Cabbage Soup Diet plan is that it may get people to eat more vegetables,
Diekman says.
By Kathleen
M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD
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