If you want to lose weight, it is not advisable to follow a diet like the Cabbage Soup Diet. On the fad diet, you follow a very strict week-long eating plan with only a small number of food choices permitted. Due to the low calorie intake, you will drop the weight quickly. However, once normal eating resumes, the weight will return. Speak to your doctor about healthier eating plans that include soup.
Features
On the Cabbage Soup Diet, you prepare a blend of onions, celery, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and vegetable juice. You may eat an unlimited amount of the soup. Along with the soup, you are allowed limitless fruits and vegetables most days of the week. Meat is allowed one day of the week. The diet is low in nutrients, such as protein, iron, calcium and essential fatty acids, according to the American Heart Association.
Prevention/Solution
Instead of eating only soup, replace one meal per day with a bowl of soup. For instance, the Amazing Soup Diet created by the Good Housekeeping website has you eat two low-fat meals and one bowl of soup per day. Breakfast options may include berries and yogurt, cereal with fruit and skim milk, or oatmeal with nuts. Lunch is typically a salad or a sandwich on pita or whole grain bread.
Types
On the Amazing Soup Diet, the soups are healthy and low in fat. At dinner, you are instructed to eat two cups of soup as your meal. A basic soup is created by mixing carrots, zucchini, spinach, cabbage, celery, green beans, garlic and chicken broth. Variations of the basic soup mixture are permitted on the diet. Examples include fish stew, minestrone and southwest chili. On the side at dinner, you are allowed a small salad or piece of fruit.
Expert Insight
A 2000 study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that subjects who ate chicken rice soup ate 26 percent less in their next meal, compared to other subjects who ate a chicken rice casserole or the same casserole with a glass of water. Researchers speculate the water in the soup made the subjects feel fuller and eat less.
Effects
Eating soup can help you lose weight by being part of a well-balanced menu. You'll lose weight by better controlling portion sizes. Since soup looks bigger, the Penn State researchers say, your brain and stomach are simultaneously satisfied.
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