Cabbage Soup Diet

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a low-fat, high-fiber diet that allows you to eat as much cabbage soup and consume as much water as you want each day for seven days. Few other specific foods are allowed and their intake is severely restricted. The recipe for cabbage soup varies slightly, but usually includes a variety of vegetables and spices, including cabbage, onions, tomatoes, flavored bouillon, onion soup mix and tomato juice. Some variations include green peppers, celery, carrots and mushrooms.

The basis of this diet is that cabbage soup contains very few calories and that it's a "fat-burning" soup. However, neither cabbage nor cabbage soup has any fat-burning properties. Since the soup contains minimal calories and the daily allotment doesn't even total 1,000 calories, it can be quite a dangerous diet to adopt.

Although the diet is only for seven days (and shouldn't be adhered to for longer), it is believed by some to provide a great "kick-start" for a more moderate diet. However, the loss of weight is said to come from loss of water and muscle tissue, not from fat reserves. It is more of a short-term, "quick fix" diet to lose weight fast in order to fit into a dress for a special occasion or event. The Cabbage Soup Diet is effective for losing weight rapidly, but it's not suitable for long term weight loss. It does not help you to change your eating habits, which is essential for permanent weight loss.

Overall the Cabbage Soup Diet is deficient in protein, carbohydrate and essential fats. The ingredients in the cabbage soup are mostly healthy, though if stock is used as well as soup mix, the finished soup could be quite high in salt. This is not a very nutritionally-sound plan, and certainly not one to live on.