Encyclopedia of Diets - A Guide to Health and Nutrition

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Cabbage soup diet

Definition

The cabbage soup diet is a quick weight loss pro-
gram intended to be followed for seven days. The cen-
terpiece of the diet is a recipe for cabbage soup, which
the dieter may consume in unlimited quantities. In
addition to the cabbage soup, there are certain other
foods the dieter must eat on specific days during the
week. There are several versions of the diet, most of
which promise a 10-17 lb weight loss during the week.

The cabbage soup diet has a number of other
names:

TWA Stewardess Diet

Model’s Diet

Dolly Parton Diet

Military Cabbage Soup Diet

Mayo Clinic Diet

Sacred Heart Hospital Diet
Miami Heart Institute Diet

Spokane Diet

Fat Burning Diet

T. J.’s Miracle Soup Diet

The Skinny

Origins

The cabbage soup diet may be the oldest fad diet
still in use; it seems to resurface with a new name every
10 to 15 years. It has been described by some historians
of popular culture as a good example of an urban
legend—a type of modern folklore passed from person
to person via word of mouth, photocopies, or e-mail.
Urban legends are often stories or anecdotes, but some
can be called ‘‘widely accepted misinformation.’’

No one seems to know when the cabbage soup
diet was first formulated or the identity of its origina-

tor. According to the American Dietetic Association’s

timeline offad diets, the cabbage soup diet originated

around 1950, but it may date back even earlier. There

is a recipe for ‘‘Doughboy Cabbage Soup’’ dating back

to World War I (1914–1918), when American soldiers

fighting in France had few other vegetables available

and eating cabbage offered protection against scurvy,

a deficiency disease caused by inadequatevitamin Cin

the diet. The name ‘‘Military Cabbage Soup Diet’’ is

likely derived from the World War I soup recipe,

although that early recipe lacked the tomatoes, bouil-

lon cubes, and other seasonings included in recent

versions of the diet.

After the 1950s, the cabbage soup diet was revived

in the early 1980s not only as the Dolly Parton Diet

but also as the Trans World Airlines (TWA) Steward-

ess Diet and the Model’s Diet. It acquired these names

because of the belief that celebrities, models, and flight

attendants had to meet rigorous periodic weight

check-ins in order to keep their jobs. The cabbage

soup diet was passed around from person to person

in the form of photocopies during this period. It often

claimed that the dieter would lose 10-17 lb during the

first week either because cabbage supposedly has no

calories at all or because it contains a ‘‘miracle fat-

burning’’ compound.

The cabbage soup diet reappeared in the mid-

1990s, when fax machines and the Internet made it

easy for people to transmit copies of the diet to friends

and workplace colleagues. The diet was also published

in magazines such asCosmopolitanandGentlemen’s

Quarterly(nowGQ) in 1995. The diet was attributed

to health associations as well as the cardiology depart-

ments of several hospitals and medical centers in this

period. These institutions supposedly gave the diet to

overweight patients preparing for heart surgery to help

them to lose weight quickly before their operations.

Thus, the diet acquired such names as the Sacred

Heart dietor the Spokane diet (from the names of

hospitals in Brussels, Belgium, Montreal, Quebec, and