Cabbage Soup Diet Examined

Again, we come across a diet that is merely a fad, grounded in no way in the fundamentals of proper nutrition. A look at the cabbage soup diet website should be our first indication of this. The creator of the diet (whoever he or she is) acknowledges that the plan is not suitable for long-term use, but nonetheless recommends it for emergency weight loss, such as having an important function to attend. The cons of the diet? According the website, “Some people find the soup bland. Some people have reported feeling light-headed, weak, and have suffered from decreased concentration.” However, those who did reported that the temporary loss of sanity was very well worth it, since they lost a lot of weight. What a tradeoff! We are interrupted in the middle of the site for an ad about a diet that works even better than the cabbage soup diet! Nine pounds in eleven days! One is left to wonder what tradeoffs are associated with that one.

The diet is simple enough. Drink plenty of water, take a multivitamin, eat as much cabbage soup as you like, and finally, remember that you only have to subject yourself to this torture for seven days in order to lose a great deal of weight. The cabbage soup itself consists of the following ingredients: onion, green pepper, tomato, carrot, mushroom, celery, cabbage, spice to taste, and Lipton tea (just what someone with decrease mental capabilities needs – caffeine.) Additionally, on day one of the diet, you may eat nothing but fruit. One day two, non-starchy vegetables. On day three, combine the two. Four – eat only bananas and skim milk. On day five, you may eat beef and tomatoes. On day six, for variation, you may switch from tomatoes to vegetables. Finally, on day seven, “stuff, stuff, stuff yourself” with fruit juice and vegetables.

Since the website offers us no reasoning as to why this very particular combination of foods would result in weight loss beyond what one would usually achieve by following a reduced calorie diet, let us begin dissecting the diet to see what could possibly be at work here. Really and truly, the only pattern that is followed is that on any given day, most of the basic food groups are eliminated completely. As to why one must eat beef on day five and poultry, you would assume, would be detrimental to the diet, that question is completely up in the air. The author of the site offers no scientific backing whatsoever for the diet, other than to acknowledge that conventional scientific wisdom would not approve.

This brings us back to the points that we have made before about every other fad diet. Weight loss of greater than one or two pounds per week makes unhealthy, unreasonable demands on our poor ill-treated bodies. Human beings were not meant to lose up to ten pounds in a single week, which is what the Cabbage Soup Diet advocates. The results of such unfettered weight loss are clearly indicated in the disclaimer, as are the results of following a program which makes no nutritional concessions whatsoever. The cabbage soups in itself does not provide any proteins, carbohydrates or essential fats. On any given day, the additional allowed foods only provide one or two. In fact, the body needs two weeks between rounds of this diet to recover sufficiently to begin again. This is far from sustainable weight loss.