How Healthy Is the Soup Diet?

A soup diet is where most of your meals consist of soup. Not just for those who love soup, the soup diet can be a way to tightly control calories and lead to accelerated short term weight loss. This article will explore the different types of soup diets, outline the pros and cons and help you decide if a soup diet will be healthy for you. 

What is a soup diet? 

A soup diet is a short-term diet used for quick weight loss. Typically lasting for 5-7 days, soups diets are not designed for a long term, sustainable method of healthy weight loss and there is not much scientific evidence to show they are effective. 

Whilst some have reported large amounts of weight loss following soup diets, this is most likely to be water weight, which will return when you start eating properly again.

Cabbage Soup Diet

The cabbage soup diet is one of the most popular soup diets. It lasts for 7 days and the meal plan consists of vegetable soup made up of cabbage and other vegetables that are low in carbohydrates. Alongside the soup you can also include other low-calorie foods such as skimmed milk and leafy greens.  

The cabbage diet has been described by The Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s leading hospitals, as a fad diet which shouldn’t be followed for long. It’s a low-calorie diet lacking in a range of nutrients that will mean your energy levels will drop. It's super low-carb nature will also likely make you feel very tired, and lack of protein may leave you feeling not very satiated. 

It may also cause increased flatulence and after 7 days of eating cabbage its likely you will probably never want to see a cabbage again.