As many may assume, the soup diet is not just one diet but rather a collection of feeding plans that promise great weight loss potential in a short period of time.
On a number of these diets, you are required to consume nothing aside from soup. On others, the base food is soup, but you have to include other prescribed foods in your feeding plans.
While the details of every soup diet are different, for the more substantial part, all soup diets are designed to last from between five to 10 days.
Soup diets are not new; they have been around for many decades. One of the very first soup-based diets was the cabbage soup diet, which quickly gained popularity in the 1980s.
With this feeding plan, people follow a particular cabbage soup recipe and eat it for seven days to lose at least 10 pounds.
Since then, many other soup-based diets have been created to accommodate a broad range of eating styles, diet trends, and tastes.
For example, you can find keto soup plans, vegetarian soup plans, paleo soup plans, and even bean-based soup plans.
While each plan is unique, it promises to help people achieve significant weight loss in a very short period of time.
Some studies have shown that feeding in soup may help people eat significantly less; as a result, they get to lose weight.
This makes a lot of sense, as severely restricting the types of food you eat reduces your chances of wanting to overindulge.
According to a 2011 study, soup intake was linked to lower body mass index (BMI) and smaller waist circumference. Nevertheless, the study was significantly limited in that only 103 Japanese men were studied.
Another study carried out in the United States discovered an association between soup consumption and lower body weight. Researchers concluded that soup consumption may offer benefits for body weight management.
However, neither this above study nor the Japanese men investigated weight loss diets in which soup was the only food allowed for consumption. There are no studies evaluating soup-only diets.
How the Soup Diet Works?
There are so many different variations of the soup diet. We have put just a few of the very well-known soup plans.
However, simply because these plans have become popular, they cannot be considered healthy diets or the most effective weight loss plans.
As already pointed out, it is possible to incorporate one or more aspects of these plans or any soup recipes into a healthy diet.
Basic Soup Diet
There is the basic soup diet, which allows you to consume any soup you like.
This means that you can enjoy creamy soups or broth-based soups, as well as homemade and canned soups.
Soups made with meat are also encouraged, as are soups that are plant-based. Other soup plans may consist of a simple recipe that you must follow and also offer detailed instructions.
Most basic soup diets are designed to last seven days, but some can last up to two weeks.
If online claims are anything to go by, you can lose 10 to 15 pounds while on this diet. The catch here is that you only eat soup.
Cabbage Soup Diet
This is a seven-day eating plan that requires you to make a big batch of soup.
The main ingredient is cabbage, but it may also include onion, tomato, carrots, and either a vegetable—or chicken-based broth.
Most websites promoting the cabbage soup diet plan claim that people can lose as much as 10 pounds in a week if they follow the program precisely.
While following the cabbage soup diet plan, you will be presented with a list of foods to include and a list of foods to avoid.
Most plans will allow you to eat skim milk and beef but restrict foods like bananas.
The Sacred Heart Diet
On the sacred heart eating plan, you must consume soup made with chicken or beef broth, celery, green beans, onion, tomatoes, and carrots.
When the Sacred Heart diet first became famous, proponents of the feeding program claimed that it was connected with a medical center known as Sacred Heart. However, there is no proof to back up the claims.
The diet claims that if you are faithful to this plan, you can shed 10 to 17 pounds weekly.
Foods that you are allowed to eat, in addition to the Sacred Heart diet, include brown rice and unsweetened fruit juice in very specific amounts.
For example, tomatoes and potatoes can only be eaten on specific days and in particular amounts.
Bean Soup Diet
On the bean soup diet, you must consume vegetable bean soup made from ingredients including diced tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, chili peppers, pinto beans, and bell peppers.
This bean soup recipe is more complicated than many other soup recipes.
While following this soup diet program, you must consume bean soup twice a day as your main meal and drink plenty of water.
People who follow this diet plan are advised not to eat or limit their consumption of nuts, dried fruit, avocados, and seeds but are encouraged to consume most plant-based and other oil-free foods.
Keto Soup Diet
This soup diet is one of the most famous today, as it often appeals to those who follow a paleo diet, a ketogenic diet, or a low-carb feeding plan.
The diet is designed to last only five days and offers a daily intake of between 1,200 and 1,400 calories and as much as 20 grams of carbohydrates. Some foods, such as dairy and nuts, are entirely off-limits.
The soup is usually made with olive oil, bacon, red wine, sun-dried tomatoes, squash, and green beans.
Some substitutions are allowed in this diet plan, but people who choose to follow it are told to avoid specific vegetables such as kale because they may “impede weight loss.
However, this kale concern remains a questionable claim that was marketed by online proponents of this feeding plan and is also not supported by science.
What to Eat?
As you may already know, there are many types of soup diets that you can try.
Each of them has different foods that are prohibited and those that are encouraged.
Even though each feeding plan is unique, there are specific trends among them.
Quick weight loss is the promise for those who choose to stick with the diets for the prescribed period.
However, one drawback to these feeding plans is that they often lack well-balanced nutrition or a healthy and sustainable way to move on to a long-term diet.
Broth
In general, almost all soup diets require that followers make soup using a clear broth as the base.
What that means is that you will have to use beef stock, chicken stock, or vegetable stock.
Vegetables
Soup diets that adopt a low-carb eating style use vegetables with a lower glycemic index, such as cauliflower, turnips, and collard greens.
These diets usually skip higher-carbohydrate veggies like potatoes and carrots.
Dairy
Very few soup plans will let you eat dairy. That means no cream is allowed in your glass of milk or coffee with your lunch. Some plans enable skim milk on certain days.
Processed Foods and Sweet Treats
If you want to follow a soup diet, you do not need to expect any snacking on candy, crackers, baked goods, or chips. Almost all food that comes in a wrapper or box is off-limits.
Recommended Timing
On almost all soup diets, you must eat three meals daily. Several plans require you to eat only soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Others may allow you to eat one or two typical meals each day.
Have you tried any of these soup diets before? If yes, leave a comment below, letting us know your thoughts.
