January 16th, 2009 by 
Writer
It’s very easy to describe the cabbage soup diet – FAKE. There’s really no need for further explanation. But in case you’re curious here is some more information.
The origins of the cabbage soup diet are nebulous. It first appeared in the early 1980s, faxed from person to person like a chain letter. There were many names for the diet, sometimes a well-known institution such as St. Jude’s diet. Needless to say, the diet has no relation to any of the institutions, nations, or people used in these names.
The cabbage soup diet calls for drinking nothing but water or unsweetened fruit juice on days when juice is allowed. Here’s how the diet works.
Day one — cabbage soup and fruit, but not bananas.
Day two — cabbage soup, vegetables which could be half of a baked potato without butter.
Day three — cabbage soup and any vegetable or fruit except bananas or potatoes.
Day four — cabbage soup, eight bananas, skimmed milk.
Day five — cabbage soup, six tomatoes and up to 20 ounces of beef.
Day six — cabbage soup plus as much beef and vegetables as can be eaten, but no potatoes.
Day seven — cabbage soup, brown rice, vegetables, unsweetened fruit juice, but no potatoes.
It was often claimed the cabbage soup diet could result in as much as 10 pounds of weight loss in only week. Unfortunately that would be 10 pounds in water weight. Nutritionists agree that it’s just not possible to lose 10 pounds of fat in only one week. What the cabbage soup diet could accomplish in a week is to make someone sick from eating poorly.
The other problem with the cabbage soup diet is that it’s a very difficult diet to follow. That isn’t to say that it’s complicated, but cabbage soup seven days in a row can be quite bland and boring. It was common for people to last only a couple of days before quitting. There were even attempts to spice up cabbage soup recipes but they failed.
In general nothing quite as extreme as the cabbage soup diet is needed to lose weight. A program of exercise plus cutting down calories than what you normally eat on a day-to-day basis can be very effective.
