Note: There are a number of variations to this recipe.
Cabbage Soup 7 Day Meal Plan
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.
The iPhone, iPad App
The cabbage soup diet is also available as an iPhone/iPad app for dieters to use on the go.
Summary and Warning
The biggest drawback of the Cabbage Soup diet plan is the sheer monotony of eating cabbage soup.
However, some diets 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.
There are also serious concerns regarding the nutritional quality of this diet. On many days, the diet is low in protein, calcium, and essential fatty acids.
There are also high levels of sodium or MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) when using onion soup mix and bouillon.
Weight loss will probably occur due to the low calorie intake not because of some magical property of cabbage soup.
References
- Cummings, J. H., Branch, W., Jenkins, D. J. A., Southgate, D. A. T., Houston, H., & James, W. P. T. (1978). Colonic response to dietary fibre from carrot, cabbage, apple, bran, and guar gum. The Lancet, 311(8054), 5-9. link