The Cabbage Soup Diet has received plenty of publicity in the past couple of years. Numerous television current affairs shows, in their quest for ratings, have run "diet contests" to compare the effectiveness of several popular diets head-to-head. These comparison "studies" are usually very short term - usually only seven or 14 days. In most of these "studies", the Cabbage Soup Diet wins.

It should be said from the outset that there isn't just one "Cabbage Soup Diet". You can go to any major search engine and quickly find several similar though slightly different Cabbage Soup Diets, full recipe and instructions free of charge online. Or, you can go to a book shop and buy a book someone has published by the same name.

Don't bother.

The Cabbage Soup Diet is another in an endless procession of "quick fix" miracle weight loss diets that become popular for a season, then (thankfully) disappear. Over the past twenty years or so, there has been the Grapefruit diet, the Bread diet, the Watermelon diet, the Water diet, the Milk diet, the Lemonade diet and a number of different "soup" diets of which the Cabbage Soup Diet is but the latest incarnation.

Apart from the disgusting taste, the next most notable feature of the Cabbage Soup diet is that, over a 7 or 14 day period, you will lose quite a bit of weight.

You will also feel quite weak. Your body will not be losing very much body fat, but will be dehydrating. The glycogen in your muscles will be drained (25% glucose, 75% water) as your body cannibalizes itself in search of nutrients. If you do last beyong 7 days and try for 14, don't be surprised if you get dizzy spells or even faint as your blood glucose levels fall too far. The Cabbage Soup Diet is really just an ultra-low calorie endurance test, little more than fasting.

If you want a short term quick fix fast weight loss that is accompanied by loss of strength, the frustration of hunger, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and a shut-down of your metabolism - followed by regaining the lost weight and more just as fast or even faster than you lost it, then the Cabbage Soup Diet (and similar silly short term fad diets) is for you.

If you want permanent and meaningful weight loss in a healthy and sustainable way while developing better lifestyle and dietary skills that are maintainable in the long term, then stay well away from the Cabbage Soup Diet and its ilk.