Rumor has it that hospital personnel hatched the idea for the cabbage soup diet to help patients lose weight fast before surgery, but there's no proof to support this claim, and variations of the diet have been around for quite some time. The EveryDiet website, which reviews diets for their pros and cons, does not recommend this diet. MayoClinic.com notes that the cabbage soup diet does not have the elements of a plan that will help you succeed in keeping weight off long term.
Purpose
The cabbage soup diet is a very-low-calorie diet designed to take weight off fast, as much as 10 lbs. in seven days. By restricting your diet to the soup, plus some isolated other foods over the course of seven days, you'll lose a lot of water weight and the number on your scale will drop, but it is unlikely that much of the difference will be due to lost fat, according to MayoClinic.com. If you need to lose weight quickly, the cabbage soup diet might get you there, but you'll probably regain the pounds as soon as you start eating normally again.
Rules
Cabbage soup is the mainstay of the diet; you must eat it every day for seven days. On the first day, you can supplement the soup only with fruit, excluding bananas. On day two, you eat the soup plus vegetables, but nothing else. You eat the soup and both fruits and vegetables on the third day, except baked potatoes. On day four, you can eat the soup and up to 6 bananas, along with all the fat-free milk you like. You are allowed to have the soup, 6 tomatoes and up to 20 oz. of beef or fish on day five, but nothing else. You can have the beef plus any vegetables you like, along with the soup, on the sixth day, and on the last day you can add brown rice, fruit juice and vegetables. Do not stay on the diet longer than a week. Wait at least two weeks before starting again.
Advantages
This diet will help you lose some weight very quickly because of how strict and low calorie it is. If you eat lots of junk food and don't eat well to begin with, the cabbage soup diet might actually be a little healthier than your regular diet for a brief period of time.
Disadvantages
There's not enough variety in the diet on a daily basis to give your body the vitamins, minerals and nutrients it needs, and you may feel that in the form of fatigue. The high cabbage content of the diet will probably give you gas and flatulence. Depending on the recipe you use, the soup itself can be unhealthy because of high sodium content, but you can choose your own cabbage soup recipe.
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