Souping is the new juicing. And, at first glance, this summertime trend sounds less extreme—and tastier—than its liquid predecessor. C’mon, who doesn’t love a good bowl of soup?
While there’s no one way to get your slurp on, souping (a.k.a. soup cleanses) can range from simply incorporating a bowl of soup into your daily diet to eating, er, drinking, all of your meals in soup-form for days on end.
But will it help you lose weight? And is it even healthy? We turned to Nutritionist Alison Baldwin, to find out.
How does a soup cleanse work?
A soup cleanse, also known as souping, is a detox method where you eat nothing but soups for a set number of days. The theory behind soup cleanses is that by focusing on feeding the body nutrient-rich vegetables and broths in an easy to digest format it may help balance the digestive system.
How does it compare to a juice cleanse?
Juice cleanses tend to recommend only drinking juice, removing food from the diet altogether, while souping involves eating healthy, nourishing and satisfying soup meals.
Most juices lack fibre, while soups include vegetables and many also provide protein from legumes and grains, plus great flavour from herbs and spices.
The ingredients used tend to make soup naturally lower in sugar, plus they’re a source of fibre, quality carbohydrates and can also provide some important vitamins and minerals.
What’s the best way to approach a soup cleanse?
It should be said that there is no scientific evidence to show that the body needs to be ‘detoxed’ or cleansed, as the liver and the kidneys already do an great job in ridding the body of any toxins.
But a ‘cleanse’ can remind us of how much better we feel when we eat a diet packed full of vegetables and limit highly processed foods.
To implement an effective soup cleanse it’s best to commit for a short, set period of time. The greatest benefits will be noticed 3-5 days after resetting your diet on low calorie, vegetable rich eating. At this point your body will have eliminated extra fluid, your appetite will have readjusted to smaller portions, sugar cravings will stop and bloated stomachs begin to ease.
What if you are wanting to really focus on weight-loss?
The role of soup in weight management has been studied for many years. Research shows soups can be an effective strategy for managing weight. Broth and vegetable based soups are not only very low in calories, but the volume and fibre rich vegetable base means you get a filling meal for minimal calories. For this reason basing a couple of meals in your diet each week around soup is proven to enhance weight loss efforts.
Four ways soup can help manage body weight:
• Decrease hunger
• Increase fullness
• Enhance satisfaction
• Reduce calorie intake
What should you avoid during a soup cleanse?
Steer clear of processed food with highly refined carbohydrates, such as pastries, muffins, confectionary and chips.
Choose low calorie, vegetable-rich soups and broths rather than cream or meat-based soups that tend to be higher in saturated fat and sodium.
Replace coffee and caffeine rich drinks with water or herbal teas and avoid alcohol, high sugar fruit juices and smoothies.
What are some great soups to try?
Campbell’s Real Soup has a great offering of ready-to-go soups that can be consumed both hot and cold:
• Pumpkin with Turmeric
• Tomato & Basil with Lentils
• Green Pea with Spinach
• Sweet Potato & Carrot with Coconut
You can also try Campbell’s Bone Broth from Free Range Chicken and Campbell’s Bone Broth from 100% Australian Beef.
FAQs
These diets are not meant to be long-term. Most of the programs last 10 days or less. You can lose a substantial amount of weight in such a short amount of time, but the weight loss will likely come from water loss—not from fat loss.
How much weight can you lose on a 7 day soup diet? ›
Broth-based soup diets generally last for 7 days. However, some can last as long as 10–14 days. Over that time, proponents of a broth-based diet claim you can lose up to 10 or even 20 pounds (4.5 to 9 kg). On a broth-based soup diet, cream-based soups are restricted, as they're higher in calories and fat.
How much weight can you lose eating soup for 2 weeks? ›
Although research seems to indicate that soup can be an effective part of a weight loss plan, there is no research that conclusively demonstrates how much weight you can lose if you only eat soup for two weeks.
Does souping really work? ›
Experts say “souping,” as the trend has been called, can help you lose weight. And it can do so without making you feel like you're starving.
What to eat after a soup cleanse? ›
Whole foods
This means sticking to organic fruits, vegetables, grains, and healthy fats like olive or avocado oil. Start with simple fruits and vegetables, and slowly introduce heavier solid foods like carbs and meat. Your body has just done all this work to cleanse itself of toxins, you want to keep it that way!
How to lose 10 pounds in a week? ›
To lose 10 pounds in one week, you'll need to burn between 3,500 and 5,000 calories more than you consume each day by restricting your diet to small portions of nutritious yet low-calorie foods, and significantly increasing your aerobic exercise with interval training, sports, and other vigorous activities.
Does the fat burning soup diet work? ›
Like many other fad diets, the cabbage soup diet is not a realistic long-term weight loss plan. Eating so few calories will likely not provide enough nutrition for the body to function properly, which may lead to loss of muscle mass, reduced cognitive function, and feelings of illness or exhaustion.
Why am I not losing weight on the cabbage soup diet? ›
One of the main problems with the Cabbage Soup Diet is that it can only be followed for 1 week, which is not long enough for meaningful weight loss. Your body can only burn so much fat per week. In the first week of a low calorie diet, only about 34% of the weight lost is from fat.
Can we drink soup at night for weight loss? ›
Soup is a good evening meal to have every day because it is typically low in calories and high in nutrients, making it a healthy option for weight management. It is also easy to make and can be customized with a variety of ingredients to suit personal taste preferences.
Can I just eat soup and lose weight? ›
As the soup diet usually only lasts for 7-14 days, it's not recommended in the long term. The NHS also highlights how very low-calorie diets like this often lead to short term weight loss, but it's likely that you'll put some or all of the weight back on once you go back to eating normally.
According to many experts, losing 1–2 pounds (0.45–0.9 kg) per week is a healthy and safe rate (1, 2, 3 ). Losing more than that is considered too fast and could put you at risk of many health problems, including muscle loss, gallstones, nutritional deficiencies and a drop in metabolism ( 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 ).
What happens if you don t eat for 2 days will you lose weight? ›
To prevent excessive muscle loss, the body begins to rely on fat stores to create ketones for energy, a process known as ketosis. During the first 5 days without food, a person may lose 1–2 kilograms (2.2–4.4 pounds) of body weight each day. Most of this weight loss is related to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
What does detox soup do for your body? ›
During a soup cleanse, you are avoiding harmful foods that hurt your body and drag your immune system down. You are also giving your body exactly what it craves, which is foods that are high in fiber and rich in nutrients. This will make your body and mind thank you!
How many pounds can you lose on a cleanse? ›
On average, people can lose anywhere from 3-10 pounds on a 3-7 day juice cleanse. However, some people have reported losing up to 20 pounds on a longer cleanse. It's worth noting that the weight loss you experience on a juice cleanse isn't just water weight.
Does cleanse make you lose weight? ›
There may be early weight loss because you start out consuming fewer calories. But detox diets tend to lead to weight gain once you resume a normal diet. Detox diets can also have risks. The FDA has charged several companies for selling detox/cleansing products that contain harmful ingredients.
