Is the Cabbage Soup Diet Safe or Healthy?

This eating plan is considered a fad diet. Fad diets often promote quick weight loss that is unsustainable and may severely restrict what you eat. They may be harmful and generally do not have long-lasting health benefits. Talk to your healthcare provider before making any major changes to how you eat.

The cabbage soup diet is a calorie-restrictive eating plan designed to help with quick weight loss. The promise? Eat lots of cabbage soup for a week — in addition to some amount of fruits, vegetables, plus beef and milk on specified days — and drop pounds. Here, learn how the diet claims to work, foods it includes, and risks to understand.

The cabbage soup diet calls for followers to eat its namesake meal several times per day for one week as a method of losing weight fast. Its key function is to restrict calories by severely limiting your food intake. “The cabbage soup diet is a seven-day diet [that] is low in fat and high in fiber,” says Julie Rothenberg, RD, LDN, owner of JuliENERGYnutrition in Miami. “The low-calorie diet combined with the high fiber content of the filling vegetables, fruit, and cabbage help a person to go to the bathroom more than usual. At the end of the week, there is weight loss from water weight primarily, and largely due to calorie restriction.”

While some people do successfully meet such short-term goals, the weight often comes back once you stop doing the diet. Still, the plan appeals to certain people. “This diet ‘works’ merely because it’s super restrictive in calories,” says Rothenberg. “It markets itself to people who want to lose weight for a special occasion or event coming up.”

• Day 1 “Day 1 is just the soup and fruit only,” says Rothenberg. Bananas aren’t allowed on the first day.
• Day 2 Cabbage soup and other vegetables (cooked or raw, except for potatoes) are allowed on the second day.
• Day 3 Cabbage soup plus raw fruits and vegetables are allowed on the third day.
• Day 4 Along with the cabbage soup, you can also have a maximum of eight bananas and unlimited skim milk on this day only.
• Day 5 Eat beef and tomatoes along with your cabbage soup. “You can eat 2 to 20 ounces of beef,” says Rothenberg. “Twenty ounces of beef contains 160 grams of protein, which is roughly 100 grams more protein than most people need.”
• Day 6 Unlimited beef and vegetables (except for potatoes) along with the cabbage soup on this day only.
• Day 7 In addition to the cabbage soup, you can have brown rice and unsweetened fruit juice.

The key component of the cabbage soup diet is to restrict caloric intake by limiting the foods available to consume. Below, find the foods and drinks to include, even if on a restricted basis. All other foods are not part of the diet.

Foods to Include

• Cabbage, unlimited throughout all seven days
• Other raw or cooked vegetables throughout all seven days (except for potatoes)
• Apples
• Berries
• Bananas
• Brown rice
• Beef
• Sugar-free juice
• Skim milk

Foods to Avoid

Anything not expressly listed in the diet plan is off-limits while doing a cabbage soup diet.

There is no scientific evidence that suggests the cabbage soup diet is safe and effective for weight loss.

While many of the foods allowed in the cabbage soup diet offer nutrients that contribute to a well-rounded diet, the principles of this restrictive eating plan are not healthy. The diet may also pose side effects and risks, especially for people who have certain underlying health conditions.

• Nutrient Deficiencies “Essentially there is very little fat included in this diet, because the only fat source comes from the beef, or milk if choosing whole milk,” says Rothenberg. Healthy fat is an essential macronutrient needed daily to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

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• Unsustainable Weight Loss Indeed, fad diets like the cabbage soup plan can lead you to gain weight when you stop doing the plan. “I have had a client come to me and say they did the cabbage soup diet prior and it did ‘work’ in the short term, but she ended up gaining the weight back with an additional 5 pounds the following week,” Rothenberg says.
• Negative Impact on Metabolism Fads like the cabbage soup diet can wreak havoc on your metabolism.
• No Balance Between Nutrition and Exercise According to Mayo Clinic, fad diets don’t include guidelines for balancing nutrition with physical activity, which is crucial for weight management, along with heart and brain health. The cabbage soup diet doesn’t have any physical-activity components, pointing to its lack of ability to support a long-term healthy lifestyle.

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• Lack of Scientific Evidence There is a lack of scientific research investigating the efficacy, safety, or health claims of the cabbage soup diet.
• Interactions With Medications/Health Conditions The highly restrictive nature of the cabbage soup diet makes it unsuitable for people with chronic illnesses, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes, who have particular dietary needs that may be harmed with the restricted caloric intake and food limitations.
• Social Isolation Because the cabbage soup diet is so restrictive, following it can make convening with friends and family over meals more difficult. This can lead to isolation and feelings of loneliness.

If you’re already at a healthy weight, do not have underlying health conditions that would make the plan unsafe, want to lose a few extra pounds, and enjoy cabbage soup (seriously, this is important), talk to your healthcare team about whether the cabbage soup diet is right for you.

Chances are they’ll steer you away from fad diets like the cabbage soup diet and instead recommend a longer-term, safer eating plan that can help you lose weight slowly and incrementally. Know that losing smaller amounts of weight at a time is better for you in the long run: It helps to protect you from nutritional deficiencies and yo-yo dieting, which tends to lead to even more even more weight gain.

• The cabbage soup diet is a fad diet designed for fast weight loss, but it is not sustainable. Healthy, gradual weight loss is much more beneficial, safer, and easier to follow over the long haul.
• Professionals agree that the effects of the cabbage soup diet won’t last and may even do more harm than good for your waistline. Additionally, the diet — which is not backed by scientific research — may predispose you to nutritional deficiencies, disrupted metabolism, and more.
• Instead, incorporate low-calorie, vegetable-based soups like cabbage soup as part of a balanced diet for gradual weight loss that’s more likely to last long-term.