Cabbage Soup Diet Review

The Cabbage Soup Diet has been around a long time. Heck, I can clearly remember the smell in the refrigerator from when my mother would try this diet. It's essentially a 7-day low calorie crash diet that involves eating unlimited amounts of cabbage soup as well as other allowable foods.
To do the Cabbage Soup Diet, you must first make the cabbage soup. Then, you can eat all the cabbage soup you want over the next week in addition to the foods mentioned below.

The Cabbage Soup Recipe

    * 6 large green onions
    * 2 green peppers
    * 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
    * about 10oz mushrooms (1 container)
    * 3 carrots
    * 1 bunch celery
    * 1/2 head cabbage
    * 1 package Lipton soup mix
    * 1 or 2 cubes bullion (optional)
    * 1 48oz can V8 juice (optional)
    * season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, garlic, curry, etc.

1. Slice the green onions.
2. Remove the seeds from the green pepper and chop into bite sized pieces.
3. Saute the onions and peppers in a large pot with some cooking spray.
4. Cut the cabbage, carrots, celery and mushrooms into bite-sized pieces and put them in the pot. Also add the can(s) of tomatoes.
5. Add 12 cups of water, the Lipton soup mix, and bullion (if desired).
6. If you want a spicy soup, add the desired spices.
7. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours or more.

During the 7 days, you can eat as much of this soup as you want. As for the rest of the food that you can eat on the Cabbage Soup Diet:

Day One: Eat as much fruit as you want (except bananas) in addition to the soup. Nothing else.
Day Two: No fruit today, but you can eat as many raw or cooked vegetables as you want, in addition to the soup. Try to eat a lot of leafy green vegetables and don't eat dried beans, peas, or corn. At dinner, you can eat a big baked potato with butter. This is supposed to be a reward.
Day Three: Eat as much soup, fruits, and vegetables as you want. No baked potatoes allowed!!!
Day Four: Soup, bananas and milk. Yummy. You can eat up to eight bananas today and as many glasses of skim milk as you want. Somehow, this day is supposed to lessen your desire for sweets, though I don't know how because are pretty darn sweet. Maybe you get sick on them?
Day Five: Eat 10-20 ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomatoes. Drink extra water today. And don't forget to eat your soup, which I'm sure is tasting lovely by now. You can eat broiled or baked chicken instead of beef (but no skin on the chicken). If you prefer, you can substitute broiled fish for the beef on one of the beef days.
Day Six: As much beef and vegetables as you want today. But, again...no baked potato! And, of course, the soup (yum).
Day Seven:As much brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables as you want. Remember your soup! It's just one more day...

The diet lasts only seven days, but it becomes increasingly difficult to eat cabbage soup as the week progresses (Note the amount of reminders you get towards the end of the week.). Of course, the soup is easy to make and the plan is pretty simple to follow.

However, it's likely that any weight you lose is only water weight and not actual fat loss. Once you resume a normal eating pattern, you are likely to regain the weight.

Many people complain about exhaustion, dizziness, and irritability. This is probably due to the very low calorie nature of this diet. Low calorie, crash diets, such as the Cabbage Soup Diet, have been known to slow down metabolism, often creating the yo-yo dieting effect.

It would also be a mistake not to mention that this diet causes gas. Stinky gas. Your loved ones may complain and encourage you to stop the diet early.

With all this said, the only way that I could possibly recommend the Cabbage Soup Diet is if you really really like cabbage and you want to use the diet as a way to kick start a new healthier eating plan.