Cabbage Soup Diet outline

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a 7 day meal plan, aimed at achieving fast weight loss. It is not a long-term weight loss solution, but is known to be effective over the short term. Apparently it originally came from a hospital (Sacred Hearts Hospital) to stimulate weight loss for surgery patients - but this cannot be verified.

Pros
- Fast weight loss.
- The change from some of our normally junky eating habits can be beneficial.
- Vegetables from the Brassica family (such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) have been found to aid in preventing cancer.
- Many say they enjoy eating the soup.

Cons
- Some complain that the Cabbage Soup a little too bland.
- Dare we say it - but be prepared for gas...
- Requires will power.
- Not a long-term answer.

Cabbage Soup Diet Resources

The cabbage soup diet has been reasonably popular over the years resulting in a number of books:

Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe Book by Margaret Danbrot (Mass Market Paperback - February 1997)
The New Cabbage Soup Diet by Marjorie Daniels (Paperback - December 2001)
The Ultimate Cabbage Soup Diet by Madeline Cooper (Paperback - June 2003)
Negative Calorie foods and 150 recipes - downloadable e-book.

Cabbage Soup Diet - better alternatives

In a similar vein, but one that many find more sustainable is the The Negative Calorie Diet™ e-book. The site also has support forums and a reasonably large following.

The biggest drawback of the Cabbage Soup diet plan is the sheer monotony of eating cabbage soup. However some diets (such as the negative calorie diet) basically look at the nutritional properties of the cabbage soup diet, and make it more interesting by combining other foods that have the same effect.

7 day cabbage soup meal plan - example outline

Day 1
Homemade cabbage soup, plus any fruit, apart from bananas.

Day 2
Homemade cabbage soup, plus other vegetables, including a baked potato with butter for dinner (potatoes are off-limits on other days)

Day 3
Homemade cabbage soup, plus other fruits and vegetables.

Day 4
Homemade cabbage soup, plus anything up to 6 bananas and fat-free milk.

Day 5
Homemade cabbage soup, plus 6 tomatoes and up to 450 grams of meat or fish.

Day 6
Homemade cabbage soup, plus meat(beef) and vegetables.

Day 7
Homemade cabbage soup, plus brown rice, pure fruit juice, and vegetables.

No bread, carbonated beverages, or alcohol.

Cabbage Soup Recipe

6 large green onions
2 green peppers
1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
1 bunch celery
1/2 head cabbage
1 package Lipton Soup Mix
1 or 2 cubes bouillon (optional)
1 48 oz. can V8
Juice (optional)
Season to taste (salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc).