A very popular detox diet, the cabbage soup detox can help you flush out toxins from your body and also lose weight, mostly from getting rid of water retention. Find out how you can use the cabbage soup for either a quick detox or for a 7 day diet.
High in fiber, cabbage can be a great detox solution. Celebrities like Jaime Pressly used the cabbage soup diet to lose baby weight, but the bland taste requires more will power than other diets to see it through.
Cabbage Soup Detoxing
The most extreme form of the cabbage soup detox involves eating only cabbage soup for 2 or 3 days. Cutting down your calorie intake drastically isn’t sustainable in the long run, but it can help you lose weight from water retention.
Right in fiber, cabbage is usually cooked with other ingredients, but for the radical “all soup” detox that shouldn’t last more than 3 days, you can choose to just eat the boiled cabbage, lightly salted.
Cabbage Soup for a 7 Day Detox Diet
With success stories that include losing up to 15 pounds in one week, the cabbage soup detox diet that lasts more than a few days includes a richer soup and extra foods to keep you healthy and fit for the duration of the diet.
Using a head of cabbage, add chopped white onions, green pepper, celery, stewed tomatoes, one garlic clove plus a teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, with hot sauce optional.
Once you’re done cooking the soup, make sure you don’t stray from the 7 day detox diet plan based on cabbage soup. Eating plenty of cabbage soup, you can also add these foods to the diet that lasts a week:
Day 1: Any fruit except bananas.
Day 2: Vegetables and a baked potato, only allowed on this day.
Day 3: Vegetables and fruits.
Day 4: Fat-free milk and bananas, up to a maximum of 6.
Day 5: Up to 450 grams of fish or meat and up to 6 tomatoes
Day 6: Vegetables and up to 350 grams of beef
Day 7: Vegetables, brown rice and fresh fruit juice
If you stick to these recommendations, you can lose more than 10 pounds in a week, but nutritionists note than the water weight eventually returns if you go back to a diet rich in fats and salt.
Possible Health Risks of a Cabbage Soup Detox
Since the cabbage detox diet cuts back your calorie intake to almost half, short term effects of this type of crash diet can include headaches, irritability and fatigue.
The cabbage soup detox can be especially unhealthy for people suffering from serious conditions, such as diabetes. Consult your physician before trying a cabbage soup detox diet.
