Let’s admit it: we’re all trying to lose that flab as quick as we can and most of us are willing to do anything to achieve this. The cabbage soup diet is one of the most recent diet fads that has taken over the food industry by a storm. All diet-conscious people know about it and many have even tried it already. While there are some who swear by the method, others are not that easily convinced.
So, how do we know if the cabbage soup diet really works? Well, we’ve had some experts analyze the specifics of the diet and give their views. Thereby, you can check out what they have to say and form your own opinion on whether the diet would work for you. Besides, we’ve also covered the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet. Read on then!
Well, as the name suggests, the cabbage soup diet is all about the dieter eating lots and lots of cabbage. More precisely, you will need to consume cabbage soup plenty of times a day for about a week if you wish to try this fad. In addition to this, you can also eat a bunch of foods that contain the lowest possible calories. For example, you can include fresh vegetables, beef, certain types of fruits (not bananas, though), and skimmed milk in your diet along with the cabbage soup.
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Can The Cabbage Soup Diet Really Help You Lose Weight?
The result of this unique diet is meant to drastically reduce your calorie count. Simply put, you should easily be able to reach the low-calorie count you need to reach your target weight. Unbelievable, isn’t it?
The cabbage soup diet assures dieters as much as 10-pounds of weight loss in a week. However, it is still unclear if that actually works as many dieters don’t stick it out for the set period of seven days. Many health experts have voiced their concern over this kind of a short-term diet plan. They fear it may have negative effects on the body in the long run. Well, you can check out our list of the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet further down and decide for yourself if you’d like it to try it.
When Should One Undertake The Cabbage Soup Diet?
There is, as such, no right or wrong time to try the diet. Anyone healthy enough to undertake it can do so. However, there are certain things that must be eaten on certain days along with the soup. You will find a list of these things below as you read further. Also, do make it a point to weigh the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet before you decide to go on it. You will find that listed below as well.
Where Did The Cabbage Soup Diet Originate?
No one can say for sure when or where this diet came into existence. However, certain records suggest that this restrictive and unique diet took to popularity sometime in the 1980s. It went by names like TJ Miracle Soup Diet, Russian Peasant Diet, and the Military Cabbage Soup among other things. But back then, no one really cared about the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet like they do now.
Details of How The Cabbage Soup Diet Works:
There are various types of ways in which the cabbage soup diet comes with lots of health benefits. However, at its very basic level, it involves a homemade recipe of cabbage soup completely free of fat. The diet also includes a list of some specific low-calorie food items which must be consumed along with the soup.
So, what ingredients do you need to make this incredible weight loss soup? Not a lot, actually. All you need is the head of cabbage along with onions, some garlic, a couple of canned tomatoes, a few other vegetables in addition to the broth, and tomato juice which can also be substituted with water. Since the recipes can vary, there is no particular set of nutritional value that can be attributed to it. However, on average, a bowl of cabbage soup contains approximately 50 to 100 calories.
The diet is meant to last for just about seven days and not more. If it works for you, experts strongly recommend that you give it a rest for at least two weeks before going back on the diet. One of the main reasons they say this is because the cabbage soup diet contains a high amount of sodium – about a hundred percent more than your daily required amount especially if you’re going to eat plenty of bowls a day. However, since you are also mixing it up with other veggies, these will offer a good amount of fiber as well.
What To Eat When?
While there are many versions of the cabbage soup diet, we’ve listed an example below to help you have a clearer picture of what to expect. These are the things you are meant to have each day of the week you diet along with at least one serving of the special homemade cabbage soup.
- Day One: Eat any amount of fresh fruits. However, bananas are the exception here.
- Day Two: Eat any amount of cooked, raw, or fresh vegetables. The exceptions here are peas, dry beans, and corn. For your last meal of the day, you can munch on a massive baked potato bathed in butter.
- Day Three: Eat any amount of fresh fruits – with the exception of bananas – in addition to the vegetables you ate on day two.
- Day Four: Drink as much skimmed milk as you want. In addition to this, you can also have as many as seven to eight bananas.
- Day Five: Eat around 10 to 20 ounces of poultry or beef along with approximately 6 fresh and juicy tomatoes.
- Day Six: Eat all the beef you want. You can also throw in as much of your favorite veggies as you want along with it.
- Day Seven: Eat any amount of brown rice. In addition to this, you can also gorge on some sweet fruit juices as well as your favorite vegetables.
In addition to the list of things mentioned above, dieters are encouraged to take as many bowls of the cabbage soup as they can. Also, while you are on the cabbage soup diet, you must try to avoid alcohol as well as artificial and real sugar.
Fat Burning Healthy Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe
Ingredients
- Tablespoon of olive oil (2tbsp)
- Fresh and properly chopped cabbage (1 1/2lb)
- Diced shape celery stalks (3)
- Diced yellow onion (1 large)
- Garlic cloves minced (4 to 5)
- Fresh peeled and chopped carrots (2 large)
- Diced capsicum (1 large)
- Low sodium vegetable broth (6cups)
- Fresh canned diced tomatoes (14.oz)
- Italian seasoning (1tbsp)
- Black paper (1/2 tbsp coarse)
- Salt (1/2 tbsp)
Instructions to cook
Drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil into a large bowl or pan, then keep the pan in an oven with medium heat. pour onions, celery, and bell pepper and toss properly. Cook until translucent. Next, stir in garlic, and cook for 1 minute.
Now mix the vegetable broth.
Add in the cabbage, and carrots then stir. Once all of the cabbage is in the pot, add in the diced tomatoes (with the juice).
Sprinkle in all the seasonings, then stir the ingredients.
Cover the pan with a glass lid, and cook for about 15 – 20.
Serve and enjoy your steamy healthy cabbage soup!
More Cabbage Soup Diet Recipes
Effective Tips For The Cabbage Soup Diet
Those who’ve already decided to try the fad even before looking at the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet should know that it can be a risky affair. However, here are a few tips listed below that might help you through this challenging task.
- Buy shredded cabbage. This will help you save time and energy on the tedious task of having to shred the cabbage you intend to use for the soup by hand.
- Get innovative with the veggies. Cutting the vegetables into small but chunky bits will make your cabbage soup that much more awesome and add volume to it.
- Add a bit of color to it. What this simply means is that you can throw in some red or purple cabbage to make the mix more interesting. After all, eating the same thing over and over again can be a tiresome thing. Thereby, the more attractive you make it, the stronger the will to get through the diet.
- Try Italian flavors. Adding Italian seasoning to the mixture will make the cabbage soup diet more tolerable. These flavors are known for their aromatic and delicious qualities and will make your soup tastier.
- Turn it into a curry. Adding spices to the cabbage mix such as cardamom, ginger, cloves, and cumin will give it an intriguing Indian curry twist. So, if you’re a fan of Indian cuisine, you should definitely try doing this when you try the cabbage soup diet.
- Consider a mix. There are several mixes available in the market such as an onion mix that you can use to make the soup a bit tastier.
- Make it tangy. Adding Tabasco sauce, Cayenne Pepper, Sriracha, or chili powder will give the cabbage soup a tangy twist. This will make it easier to chuck it down throughout the day.
Pros And Cons Of Cabbage Soup Diet
This is among the latest diet fads that have risen quickly on the popularity charts. However, experts warn that this short-term cabbage soup diet may not be among the healthiest ways to lose weight. Listed below are some of the most significant pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet. Check them out carefully and then make an informed decision of whether you’d like to try it or give it a miss.
Pros Of The Cabbage Soup Diet
Advocates of the controversial cabbage soup diet strongly assert that it is the quickest way to lose weight – as much as 10 pounds in a week! While the diet has not been studied that much in detail to verify this, the results some dieters show to prove their stand. This is perhaps because the diet itself contains incredibly low-calorie foods that are known to encourage weight loss.
Another huge advantage of the cabbage soup diet is that it is super easy to do. There is no guesswork involved as the rules are amazingly simple. All you need to do is make some delicious cabbage soup and follow the table of when to take it and with what other additional food. Also, as discussed already, the veggies in the soup will give you all the fiber you need to keep going till the end of the diet.
Last, but not least, the biggest benefit that the cabbage soup diet offers, as claimed by its proponents, is that it is a short-term process. In other words, the diet helps you lose a good amount of weight in the shortest possible time.
Cons Of The Cabbage Soup Diet
The pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet are many. Having done with the pros, let’s take a quick look at what the negatives of this fad diet method are.
The first thing dieters rue about when it comes to the cabbage soup diet is that it can be quite repetitive. What this means is that dieters are often bored into giving up on the diet barely a couple of days into it. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that very few people can enjoy (or barely tolerate) cabbage soup for seven days straight.
Another thing that opposers of the diet claim are that it is not actually based on medical science. There is no scientific study or proof to support the theory that cabbage holds within the capacity to burn fat as advertised by the cabbage soup diet. Thereby, many are unwilling to risk trying it.
A few experts have also voiced concern that the cabbage soup diet’s aim of reducing calorie count is an incredibly risky one. The diet reduces a person’s calorie count way less than it should normally be. When this happens, you can consider the dieters to be fasting rather than dieting to lose weight. More specifically, following the cabbage soup diet plan of fewer than 1,200 calories a day can be a potential danger to one’s health.
When it comes to the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet, it has also been claimed by those who oppose the diet is that the effects are temporary. What that means is that there is a high probability of easily and quickly gaining back the amount of weight you lose in a week via the diet.
Diets Similar To The Cabbage Soup Diet
In addition to checking out the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet, there are a few other similar diets that you can read about as well. These include the Sacred Heart Diet wherein you have to replace the cabbage in the soup with another veggie of your choice. Those not fond of cabbage can give this one a try. You can also consider the Three-Day Military Diet which offers a strict list of what to eat when. Then, we have the M-Plan where the ‘M’ means mushroom. What you do in this kind of diet is to replace one meal every day for around two weeks with a mushroom dish that contains low or no fat. So, if you like mushrooms better than cabbage, maybe you can give this one a try.
Final Words: Does The Cabbage Soup Diet Work?
As said earlier, not many dieters have stuck through the entire week to prove that the diet actually works. But the few who have tried swear by the method. However, experts are of the opinion that it is a dangerous thing to try unsupervised. Also, it is claimed that the effects of this quick weight loss program are only short term and do not last long. In this event, weigh the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet and decide for yourself if this is a diet worth trying. If you decide to try it, consult your physician and discuss the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet with him/her before you jump into it.
