Just Another Diet Disaster...

We've all been on those lovely "crash" diets. If you are truly obsessed with losing weight, more likely than not you've tried the infamous Cabbage Soup Diet. This diet achieved its glory as a way to lose up to 10 pounds in only a week! But experts agree that losing that much "fat" in a week is not possible. Most of what is lost is water weight. The diet tells you to eat as much soup as you want, and that the more you eat, the more you will lose, touting negative calories (burning more from digesting the soup than the actually calorie content of the soup). It is indeed a low calorie item, but it is traditionally high in sodium (to give it enough flavor to make it edible) and lacking necessary protein. Folklore has it that the diet was developed for short-term weight loss so patients could lose weight quickly prior to surgery and lessen the chance of complications. Most members of the medical profession are opponents of the Cabbage Soup Diet, specifically because it lacks sufficient protein and calories to promote healthy weight loss.

Like all other diet-obsessed people, I tried this diet back in the day. It caused me to be tired, dizzy and nauseated most of the time. And like most people, I decided that if 7 days rid me of 10 pounds then 14 days should rid me of 20, and 21 days should rid me of 30, etc. But crash diets don't work that way. You lose all the water first. Then you start losing muscle mass because there isn't sufficient protein and calorie intake to maintain your muscles.

I know several people who used this diet repeatedly (not a recommended course of action) to lose large amounts of weight. Every one of them, yours truly included, gained it all back and then some.

And if rebound weight gain is not enough to stop you from using and abusing your body with this questionable regimen, perhaps the abundance of painful flatulence will. This soup produces enough methane in your gut to propel you across the state of Ohio! And it's not exactly the odorless type.

My recommendation...pass up the Cabbage Soup Diet. There are much healthier and more effective methods to achieve permanent weight loss.

M.E.