The green tea and soup diet is not an official weight loss plan but a way of combining two strategies. You drink green tea, scientifically supported for its metabolism-boosting properties, while you also are on the cabbage soup diet, a seven-day extreme diet. Diets that severely restrict calories are best followed with medical supervision.
Cabbage Soup Diet
The cabbage soup diet involves eating lots of cabbage soup every day for seven days. Some other foods are allowed under strict guidelines. On the first day, for instance, you eat soup and as much fruit as you want, except bananas. On the second day, you eat all of the vegetables you want but no dry beans, peas or corn. You also get a baked potato for dinner. Day three lets you eat everything you ate on the first two days except for the baked potato. Bananas and skim milk are permitted on the fourth day. The fifth day features beef and tomatoes -- up to 20 oz. of meat and up to six tomatoes. On the sixth day, you can eat all of the beef and vegetables you want. The seventh day features brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables.
Water in Diet Boosts Metabolism
It's recommended that you drink four glasses of water every day you're on the cabbage soup diet --- more on the beef days --- and plain tea and coffee are allowed. Water boosts metabolism by as much as 30 percent, according to a study by Michael Boschmann, a German researcher. Based on his research, published in 2003 in the "The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism," you could lose 5 lbs. a year by drinking six glasses of water per day.
Green Tea and Weight Loss
You might achieve additional weight loss if you substitute green tea for all or some of the allowed beverages. Several United States clinical trials, including one published in 2009 in the "Journal of Nutrition," link green tea to fat loss, especially abdominal fat. Kevin Maki's study compared weight loss benefits of green tea and black tea. He found that the greater number of catechins --- antioxidants --- in green tea helped study participants lose more weight. The men who drank black tea lost 2.9 lbs. in 12 weeks, while the green tea drinkers lost 5.4 lbs. All participants followed a calorie-restricted diet.
Green Tea and Belly Fat
An animal study conducted by M. Bose and other researchers at Rutgers University found that green tea produced weight loss even when diets remained unchanged. In Bose's study, published in 2008 in the "Journal of Nutrition," obese rodents fed green tea catechins lost weight and already-thin rodents maintained their shape. Bose and Maki both found that catechins accelerated metabolism and burned body fat. Maki's study found that the men lost substantially more weight around their middles when they included 660 mg of catechins --- about 6 cups of full-strength green tea --- in their diets.
Considerations
The benefits of green tea might be substantially reduced if you buy it in processed form. Commercially bottled green tea, for instance, contains 12 mg of catechins. Green tea from tea bags might contain as little as 19 mg, but some brands contains 100 mg, nearly as many as in loose leaf tea. The cabbage soup diet, like other very low-calorie diets, can backfire. Your metabolism slows in response to the food restrictions and remains sluggish when you resume normal eating habits, and you might regain all of the weight you lost.
References
- Cabbage Soup Diet: 7 Day Eating Plan
- "The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism." Water-Induced Thermogenesis ;
- "Biotech Business Week"; Scientists at Rutgers University publish new data on obesity; Bose, M., etal; Oct. 13, 2008
- "Biotech Business Week"; New Obesity Study Findings Have Been Reported by K.D. Maki and Colleagues; March 2 2009
- USDA: Brewing Up the Latest Tea Research
- "The Times"; Lemon Aid; Bridget Harrison; Jan. 24 2006
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