If there’s one criticism of the cabbage soup diet that nearly everyone can agree with it’s that the diet is not very healthy. According to MayoClinic.com, the cabbage soup diet is a short-term approach to weight loss and can result in harmful side effects, including extreme hunger, irritability, vitamin deficiencies and chronic fatigue. However, it’s possible to dramatically improve the cabbage soup diet in order to make it a healthy way to lose weight.

Add Organic Foods to the Cabbage Soup Diet

The cabbage soup used for this 7-day weight loss plan contains lots of fresh products, including onions, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and of course, cabbage. In order to increase the amount of antioxidants that you take in from the cabbage soup, opt to use organic produce whenever possible. If money is tight you don’t need to make every ingredient organic, but try to make sure that at least 50% of the food that goes into your pot of soup is USDA certified organic.

Speaking of antioxidants, one of the few health benefits of the original cabbage soup diet was the fact that it was full of healthy antioxidants which fight free radicals and chronic diseases. Why not augment this benefit with even more antioxidant-rich foods? New versions of the cabbage soup diet recommend eating antioxidant powerhouses such as organic legumes, almonds, blueberries and extra virgin olive oil to the diet. Of course, some of these ingredients (such as fruits and nuts) don’t go into the soup itself, but are used as between-meal snacks.

Eat More Protein While On the New Cabbage Soup Diet

In order to provide the body with as few calories as possible the old version of the cabbage soup diet shunned protein-rich foods such as eggs, chicken and beef because these foods also tend to contain large amounts of dietary fat as well. However, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that protein-rich diets boosted weight loss in a group of overweight research subjects.

Opt for cabbage soup recipes that contain sources of lean protein, such as egg whites (yes, it goes great in cabbage soup!), low-fat fish and lean cuts of pork and beef. Protein helps you retain lean muscle mass as you lose weight and keeps hunger at bay.

As you can see, the cabbage soup diet doesn’t have to be a “fad” or “crash” diet. By making a few changes and being more nutrition-conscious you can make the diet a sensible and effective weight loss plan.