The Cabbage Soup Diet was first invented for patients after surgery. Surgery is the most invasive form of medicine anyone can receive and recovering from an operation, as many of you know, no matter how small, can take weeks if not months, sometimes years depending on the severity of each case.

Eating or drinking Cabbage Soup after surgery was meant to keep the patient hydrated as anesthesia is very dehydrating. Many patients stomachs cannot take as large an amount of food as is usual and nausea and vomiting are also common after surgery.

Patients were not mean to eat cabbage soup for more than two days at the most! Just enough time to recover and eat more whole foods.

Those persons who then turned this into a fully fledged nutritional diet are silly. There is very little nutritional value in cabbage, much less in cabbage soup so please, if you are reading this, do not try the cabbage soup diet for more than 24 to 48 hours. The soup itself is very good and I recommend it as a lunchtime or dinner meal any time but not more than once a week. Here is the recipe for the cabbage soup, (This is not a diet).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 can beef broth or french onion soup
• 3/4 medium head cabbage, chopped
• 2 white onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 mild pepperoncini, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 4 cups water
• l large can (28 ounces) tomatoes, chopped, with juice
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 2 dashes hot sauce, optional
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar, firmly packed

PREPARATION:

• In large kettle, combine beef broth, chopped cabbage, chopped onions, peppers, celery and water. Bring mixture to boil over medium-high heat; turn down to low. Add garlic, hot sauce, and brown sugar; continue cooking until ingredients are tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Add chopped tomatoes and juice. Add more water if needed.
  Serves 4 to 6