The cabbage soup diet is a quick weight loss plan that has been around for at least 14 years. The diet is based on a fat-burning soup that contains a small amount of calories. The more soup you eat the more weight you should lose. It allows people to eat as much Cabbage Soup as they want each day, which should sound appealing to dieters. After all, dieters love to hear that they can eat unlimited amounts of food and still lose weight fast. This shows that the cabbage soup diet works, at least temporarily.
             "The problem is not in nutrition, exactly, because the soup itself probably has more nutrition than most American meals. And it doesn't cause the toxicity that makes the Atkins diet plan dangerous for so many people, but this is an extremely low calorie diet - actually a starvation plan."(Chase freedom, 2001). The diet relies on eating strange and bizarre combinations of food that nearly force you to go hungry each day. Dieters are allowed all the water and cabbage soup they want, plus a very restricted set of other foods. A running myth suggests that this diet originated at any number of hospitals, but thus far, no medical facilities have claimed it as their own. Consensus is that the diet is effective for temporarily losing a few pounds, however, this is not a very nutritionally sound plan and certainly not one to live on. That's why no one can stay on it for long. The recommended amount of time one is said to stay on this diet is seven days, although most soup dieters restart the program over and over again.
             While the soup is very nutritious, the strange combinations of food to have along with the soup are not always very healthy and the portion sizes are nowhere near the daily-recommended totals. With day one, the soup and fruit is the only source of nutrition your body is receiving. There is no protein, grains or dairy in day one. Day two keeps you away from fruit, but allows a baked potato with butter for dinner...