Reading the reviews already written by people on Dooyoo about the Cabbage Soup diet, there seems to be a lot of strong feeling about how it affects your health, as well as your weight.

First of all, what is the diet?

The Cabbage soup diet is specifically for obese people. It is fat burning, and should not be used just to lose a few pounds. You should really only go on it if you are very overweight or obese.

The lasts one week, after which you should have lost 10-17 pounds. If you lose a stone or more, you should come off the diet for at least two days before going back on it - *if necessary*.

The Cabbage Soup diet is not just about cabbage soup. The soup also contains spring onions, peppers, celery and stock cubes/soup mix. You can eat as much of this soup as you like, the more the better.

As well as the soup, there are certain things you are allowed each day. The first four days consist of particular combinations of fruit, vegetables and skimmed milk. You can also drink unsweetened black tea, coffee, fruit juice and water as often as you like, and you may also use salt and pepper on all your food.

The next three days use particular combinations of beef, vegetables and brown rice. You can even swap the beef for chicken or fish on one of the days (whoopee).

Apart from the sheer lack of excitement in what is "allowed," the main problems with this diet comes with people complaining of feeling unwell, fainting, not having enough nutrients in their body. I believe that this may be to do with the starting weight of these dieters.

This diet claims to originate from a hospital, although there have been claims that this itself is an urban myth. Whether this is true or not, the diet obviously does more harm than good to those using it who don't actually need to. To be on the safe side, I would recommend that you DO NOT go on this diet unless you have over two stone to lose. If you have less
weight to lose than this, then a sensible eating plan should be all you need.

I also believe that if you do decide this diet is for you, that you eat as much as you can on it, as recommended. You actually *need* everything in this diet for your body to get all the things it needs to be healthy.
Do not eat as little as you can - the soup is fat burning, and will do the work for you, if you maintain a healthy excercise level.

This is an effective diet for those who are dangerously overweight. It works, but only as a starter to set you on your way to a healthier lifestyle. You cannot keep this diet going continuously to lose all the weight you need to. This is when it becomes dangerous. I would not recommend doing it for over a week at a time, except under medical advice.

A final warning - when on the Cabbage Soup diet, never stray too far from a place you can relieve yourself. Something must be happening in there, with everything coming out the other end like that...