A High-Protein Cabbage Soup Diet

When we think of high-protein weight loss plans, most of think of any diet that offers lots of red meat, especially the Atkins plan.

Steak, fish, eggs, and bacon, and more steak, fish, eggs, and bacon are guaranteed, most people mistakenly believe, to deliver the most protein to support health and encourage weight loss.

However, it’s not only possible to follow a high-protein cabbage soup weight loss diet, every cabbage soup weight loss diet is naturally high in protein. Even better, the protein in the new cabbage soup diet is provided to the body in a safe form that encourages not just weight loss, but also healthy muscles and strong bones.

An ounce of steak provides about 3 grams of protein. An ounce of cabbage provides about 2 grams of protein. The protein in meat is more highly concentrated than the protein in cabbage and other leafy vegetables—but only about 50% more concentrated.

Can you get enough protein on a cabbage soup diet? The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that a 150-pound man on a diet of 2,000 calories a day should get about 3/4 of an ounce, or 22.5 g, of total protein. Pregnant women should get a little bit more protein, maybe a full ounce, or 28 g, of protein every day.

What about rapid weight loss? If you take the water out of red meat, it is about 6% protein. The non-water mass of a white potato, however, is about 11% protein. Oatmeal, 16%. Cabbage and other leafy greens? About 50%. If you eat two large bowls of soup ever day, the new cabbage soup diet provides all the protein needed for healthy, with a minimum of cholesterol and fat. Even more importantly, the new cabbage soup diet provides enough protein without providing too much protein.

The problem with protein is that the body cannot store it for fat loss. Human bodies can stockpile glucose and fatty acids, but they cannot store amino acids. Protein is strictly “use it or lose it”  when it comes to rapid weight loss. If the body has all of a particular amino acid it needs for that day, it converts the excess in glucose and urea. The urea, of course, is excreted out of the body as urine, but not before the kidneys neutralize any excess acidity of the urine with a chemical they make from calcium and the amino acid glutamine.

It is entirely possible to have an excess of some of the amino acids and a deficiency in glutamine. When this happens, the body strips protein out of muscles and the immune system so the kidneys can detoxify the excess urea. It takes calcium from bone. Too much protein, ironically, can lead to breakdown of muscles and bones, as well as:

• Low thyroid function and weight gain,
• Higher levels of stress hormones, leading to greater production of cortisol, leading to deposits of belly fat, and
• Resistance to insulin-like factor 1 and growth hormone, which slows down the repair and rebuilding of muscle.

The miracle cabbage soup diet is not so much a high-protein diet as it is a right-protein diet. If fill up on cabbage soup first, you won’t be tempted to overindulge in the meat and dairy that can provide your body with more protein than it can handle. Cabbage soup and other plant foods, unexpectedly, can be the ideal source of the minerals and protein your body needs to build muscle even while you lose fat.