Many diets can seem restrictive and uncomfortable, leading dieters to look toward fad diets and their promises of rapid weight loss as a solution. These fad diets often involve emphasizing one food or eliminating others, and the cabbage soup diet falls into this category. The diet might sound healthy at first, with its inclusion of fresh vegetables, but in the end it doesn't provide what you need for a balanced, long-term approach to eating right.
Definition
The cabbage soup diet is a short-term, weight-loss fad that requires you to eat almost nothing but cabbage soup for seven days. Each day has a specific dietary add-on, such as beef one day and bananas another. The soup consists of cabbage and several other vegetables, tomato or tomato-based vegetable juice, broth and soup mix, with several variations possible.
History
There's no official origin for the cabbage soup diet. Elaine Turner, a nutritional scientist at the University of Florida, said in the "University of Florida News" in 2002 that "More likely, someone thought they could make a buck off their favorite vegetable soup recipe." The diet is sometimes credited to a generic "Sacred Heart Hospital" or "Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital," but no hospital has acknowledged creating it, and at least two have denied it. The University of Cincinnati reports that the Sacred Heart Hospital of Montreal issued a press release denying its involvement, and the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, dedicates a page on its website to discouraging people from following the diet. The diet comes back into the public eye every few years through word-of-mouth and the occasional book.
Why Weight Drops
The mechanism by which the cabbage soup diet works is that it's generally so low in calories that you ingest fewer than you burn. Unfortunately, notes the website Weight Loss Resources, the loss is mainly water and muscle, and not the fat that people so eagerly target. The super-low calorie intake puts the diet in the realm of very low calorie diets, or VLCDs. These are diets that provide fewer than 800 calories per day, and they must be medically supervised.
Cautions
Eating more vegetables can be a healthy dietary tactic, but the cabbage soup diet's absolute reliance on them means you won't be getting what you need of other nutrients such as protein and minerals. Inadequate caloric intake can change your metabolism for the worse, making your body think it has to squirrel away every bit of caloric energy. A 2002 article by Larry Greenly in the "Journal of Chiropractic Medicine" notes that those following the diet can become lightheaded and weak, even if following the diet for only seven days.
Considerations
The soup itself is really just vegetable soup. Turner says that eating sensible amounts of the soup as part of a balanced diet can be "a welcome addition"; even the American Heart Association advocates including vegetables as part of a healthy diet. However, as with many soups, sodium is a concern, and Turner warns that eating too much of the soup, even as part of a balanced diet, can be risky because of the amount of salt.
References
- Journal of Chiropractic Medicine: A Doctor's Guide to Diet Plans From A-Z
- University of Florida News: Cabbage Soup Diet No Lucky Charm for Weight Loss, Says UF Expert
- Providence Health and Services: The "Miracle Soup Diet"
- Weight Loss Resources: The Cabbage Soup Diet: Report
- University of Cincinnati: Fast Weight Loss for Cardiac Surgery Patients
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