There are a number of variations on the basic soup and vegetable-based diet, including the Vegetable Soup Diet, the Sacred Heart Diet and the Seven Day Diet. While they differ in some respects, all share a common factor--vegetable soup is the main food consumed, even when other fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins are part of each meal. According to the BBC News Magazine, using vegetable soup as a weight-loss food has benefits that plain cooked or raw produce does not have.
Aspects
There are two main types of vegetable soup diets. The first, detailed by the Good Housekeeping site, features a basic vegetable soup dinner that serves as a base. Different add-in ingredients turn this into differen-tasting soups. The second is a highly specific seven-day eating plan that includes the same basic vegetable-based soup each day.
For the first type of vegetable soup diet, breakfast and lunch consist of low-fat, high-fiber foods with an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, and dieters are encouraged to eat as much vegetable soup between meals as they wish. On the second, more stringent vegetable soup diet, dieters consume a different type and amount of food with their soup on each of seven days.
Soup Ingredients
While the two types of soup and vegetable diets feature a basic vegetable soup recipe, that is where their resemblance ends. The vegetable soup detailed in Good Housekeeping's Amazing Soup Diet consists solely of vegetables--onions, celery, zucchini, spinach, cabbage, canned tomatoes, carrots, green beans--in water and chicken broth, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. The vegetable soup ingredients included in a number of seven day soup diet plans consists of a base of canned chicken noodle soup or one prepared package of Lipton chicken noodle soup mix supplemented with diced potatoes, carrots, green pepper, onion, celery and frozen string beans.
Meal Plans
On the stricter, seven day vegetable soup plan, the meals and foods allowed for each day are governed by a specific set of rules. According to Every Diet and I Love India.com, these rules are: on day 1, eat any fruit except for bananas and unlimited vegetable soup; day 2, eat vegetables cooked in any manner, a baked potato for dinner and unlimited soup; day 3, consume all the fruits, vegetables and soup you would like, but do not have a baked potato; on day 4, eat at least three bananas accompanied by an unlimited amount of skim milk and soup; day 5 consists of soup, 10 to 20 ounces of beef and up to six tomatoes or the equivalent of canned tomatoes; on day 6, eat all of the beef, vegetables and soup you would like; and on day 7, consume only brown rice, vegetables and soup. On the more moderate vegetable soup plan, dieters are allowed breakfasts and lunches containing a grain, protein and vegetable accompanied by soup at dinner and at anytime as a snack.
Research
According to the BBC News Magazine, soup is a better diet food than simply eating vegetables and water. Research on digestive system processes shows that liquid and solid food blended together--like in soup--stays in the stomach for a longer period of time than water consumed with food, which passes straight into the intestines and does not contribute to a slowing down of the digestive functions of the stomach. BBC News reports that, since soup like vegetable soup stays in the stomach longer, it stretches the walls of the stomach for longer periods of time and prevents the release of ghrelin, the hormone that is produced whenever stomach wall cells detect that the stomach is empty.
Advantages
Vegetable soup diets can be highly effective weight loss tools because they feature a main food--vegetable soup--that provides healthy amounts of vitamins and minerals coupled with a low calorie count, high fiber and a high water content that helps keep the appetite under control, according to the site Love to Know.
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