There are countless beauty related tips and DIY tricks floating around on the world wide web, all promising to offer a solution to whatever beauty problem you can think of. At Amazingy, we’re getting to the root of one of those beauty secrets every month, trying to find a good answer to the question: Will this really help? Some home remedies are a great replacement to overpriced beauty products, but others can do much more harm than good. We’re on a mission to tell you which is which!

After just barely surviving the holidays with all the Christmas cookies, mulled wines and festive roasts, losing weight seems to be the goal for many. In addition to the classical ways of fasting and detoxing, there are some diets that survive the hands of time and all the fashion fads when it comes to dieting.
This specific diet has been a popular one in many kitchens for many years; the cabbage soup diet. Before you succumb to the promise of losing up to seven kilo’s within seven days, you should know the following.

The secret behind the soup

The effectiveness of this so-called ‘magic soup’ supposedly lays in the fact that the cabbage fibers are incredibly hard to digest, ensuring that the digestive system has to put up a real struggle with them. This also means that the digestive system breaks down more calories than there are coming in. In other words; the more cabbage soup you eat per day, the more weight you lose.

According to Stern however, this is nonsense, turning the cabbage soup diet into a beauty myth. Due to the low intake of calories with this diet, the body’s own storage of carbohydrates get tackled, which has a dehydrating effect. Because this diet also lacks in protein, muscle mass in the body gets reduced as well. In short; you end up losing a lot of water and muscle tissue, instead of fat.

In addition, the high weight loss associated with the cabbage soup diet could be harmful, warn the experts of Stern. Because the diet doesn’t change into more healthy eating habits over the long run, a yo-yo effect after finishing the cabbage soup diet is inevitable. Not to mention the bloating the cabbage causes, the exhaustion due to lack of essential minerals and vitamins, and the cabbage flavor that is hard to take after even two days.

My own (short) experiment

I started with eating the soup fives times per day (especially in the afternoon, when I seem to be at my hungriest), and the diet went really well for the first day. By the second day, I had a splitting headache, and was repulsed by the taste of cabbage. Drinking a lot helped, but I was still pretty exhausted and went to bed early. I felt better during the third day, but come the fourth, I felt nauseous even thinking of cabbage, and I quit the diet. By then, I had lost two kilo’s and got rid of my little Christmas muffin top, which brings me to the benefits of this diet.

Benefits

The soup is healthy. The B vitamins in the cabbage boost the metabolism and the trace element selenium has positive effects on the mood; it’s a real happy maker. You could consider cabbage as a stress-killer, since it provides folic acid, which boosts the nervous system. The mustard oils (?) prevent cancer, and Vitamin C aids the fat burning process. In addition, the high amount of potassium detoxifies the body.
Enjoyed in moderation, the cabbage soup could have some benefits. With a weekly cabbage soup day (the soup can be easily frozen), the body gets to take a break from heavier foods, and at the same time gets to benefit from the dietary plus points of cabbage. Another option is supplementing the cabbage soup diet with healthy protein shakes and regular physical exercise. Losing weight would happen less rapidly, but the weight loss would last longer, and would happen under healthier conditions.

Cabbage soup recipe
1 cabbage
2 green peppers
1 kilo of carrots
6 large green onions
1 bunch of celery
1-2 cans of canned tomatoes
1-2 tsp. of vegetable broth

Wash, peel and chop up the vegetables. Boil at least five liters of water for five to ten minutes, add all the ingredients and let it all simmer for 20 – 25 minutes on low heath. Spice the soup before serving, but leave away any salt.

Resources:
‘Die magische Kohlsuppe’ from Marion Grillparzer, published by GU
Stern.de: Diäten im Check: So sinnvoll ist die Kohlsuppendiät