Cabbage Soup

Cabbage Soup Diet basics

This easy-to-follow plan is designed to jumpstart your diet.

Eat as much cabbage soup as you desire for seven days and lose 10 to 15 pounds. The recipe varies slightly but includes a variety of low-calorie vegetables such as cabbage, onions and tomatoes, flavored with bouillon, onion soup mix and tomato juice. Each day of the seven-day program has specific foods that must be eaten, including potatoes, fruit juice, many vegetables and, on one day, beef.

Upside of the Cabbage Soup Diet

• Quick weight loss.
• No limits to the prescribed foods.

Downside of the Cabbage Soup Diet

• Diet low in too many nutrients (protein, minerals, complex carbohydrates) to continue for a lengthy period of time.
• Reports of dizziness, weakness and inability to concentrate.
• Short duration and restricted foods give little chance to change your eating habits long term.
• Weight probably will not stay off.
• The sheer volume of cabbage soup can produce excessive flatulence.

Is the Cabbage Soup Diet for You?

This chart can help you see how the Cabbage Soup Diet fits your goals and lifestyle concerns.

Duration	One week
Restaurants	No way can you find a place that serves that much cabbage!
Alcohol	No
Caffeine	Encouraged to drink coffee or tea along with the soup
Special Foods	Be sure to have a huge supply of cabbage
Family Friendly	No
Vegetarian Friendly	Cabbage soup is vegetarian, but on some days you are encouraged to eat 10 to 20 ounces of beef

Lynn Grieger, RD on the Cabbage Soup Diet

Even if you love cabbage, this diet just isn’t worth feeling weak and disoriented in the name of quick weight loss.

iVillagers on the Cabbage Soup Diet

“I was on this diet four years ago and lost 21 pounds in two months. It made me more conscious of what I ate, so after I got off the diet I was able to keep the weight off because my eating habits improved.” — An iVillager

“I tried this diet years ago and it made me feel very tired. Also, once I was off of the diet I gained all of the weight back within a month.” — An iVillager

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