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today we're going to take a look at the
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very enticingly named cabbage soup diet
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that's right if you love cabbage and you
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kind of hate yourself this is the diet
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for you if you remember the spice girls
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bomb bags saved by the bell there's a
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good chance you lived through the 90s
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and just like any decade the 90s had its
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fair share of diet trends one of which
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we're going to look at today
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how's it going guys my name is richie
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kirwan and today we're going to talk all
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about a diet that became popular in the
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90s and which luckily for us didn't
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survive long after that decade we'll
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talk about how it worked what it claimed
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to do and what was wrong with it we'll
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also talk about what actually works for
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weight loss as always i want to point
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out that i'm not recommending any
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particular diet in this video in fact
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i'm going to be really blunt right now
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and tell you that i don't think you
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should follow any specific diet at all
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you can follow sensible nutrition
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guidelines and eat well without putting
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a name on your diet now with that said
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so believe it or not and i actually find
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it really hard to believe or understand
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myself this diet has been around for a
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long time and seems to get a little
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resurgence every now and then one of its
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most recent resurgences was back in the
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90s when it appeared in magazines like
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cosmopolitan and gentleman's quarterly
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now known as gq so it's really hard to
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say who actually invented the diet
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although one of the most popular
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versions of it was written by margaret
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danbrot the one thing i can guarantee
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you is that this diet was not created by
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a nutritionist amazingly the diet was
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apparently formally used at some very
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famous hospitals like the mayo clinic
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but i can't find any actual proof for
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that online so take it with a pinch of
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the big claim of the diet was that it
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could help you to lose 10 pounds that's
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nearly five kilos in just seven days
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so the whole diet was based around
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surprisingly enough cabbage soup which
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you were supposed to make in a big batch
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at the start of the week and you could
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have as much as you wanted whenever you
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want it now in fairness to the diet the
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soup wasn't just cabbage water and salt
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it had some other ingredients like
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onions green peppers tomatoes celery
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even carrots mushrooms vegetable stock
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so might have had a little bit of flavor
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you were supposed to simmer it for
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anything from 45 minutes to two hours
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depending on the recipe you find either
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way you're getting some pretty mushy
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vegetables but just before you start
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thinking you can only have cabbage soup
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on the diet i can tell you that you
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would be wrong it actually comes with a
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whole seven-day diet plan which looks a
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little something like this
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day one cabbage soup and raw fruit but
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not bananas why does everybody hate
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day two cabbage soup and raw are cooked
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vegetables but not potatoes so many
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potato haters out there day three
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cabbage soup and raw fruit and
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vegetables but not bananas or potatoes
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day four cabbage soup
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bananas literally cat with this style
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day five cabbage soup six tomatoes and
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day six cabbage soup i can
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and unlimited vegetables excluding
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potatoes and day seven cabbage soup
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brown rice that's sugar-free juice
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doesn't that just sound wonderful
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according to an actual research review
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of fad diets the cabbage soup diet
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provides a lot fewer than 1 000 calories
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a day for the first three days about one
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thousand or more calories on days four
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and seven and a little over 1200
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calories on days five and six this is a
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very low calorie diet and if you're
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thinking that this diet is just too hard
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to stick to oh don't worry it actually
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discourages you from exercising which
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makes everything better right
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okay let's talk about everything that's
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wrong with this diet first off it's a
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diet that sells itself on helping you to
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lose 10 pounds in a week there seems to
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be a serious problem with many people
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who are trying to lose weight in the
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modern world in that most of them want
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to lose all that weight
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straight away rapid weight loss seems to
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be everybody's goal but as someone who
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has both lost a considerable amount of
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weight myself and someone who has worked
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with a lot of people to help them lose
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weight let me tell you that slow and
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steady weight loss approaches are
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probably going to be a lot more
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effective in the long term slower weight
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loss gives people the opportunity to
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build the habits that they need for
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long-term weight maintenance slower
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weight loss also doesn't restrict people
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so much that they get to a point where
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they can't stand their diet anymore and
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go on an epic binge which only ends in
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them feeling worse about themselves even
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if their diet does promise to help
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someone lose 10 pounds in a week i can
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guarantee you that it is not 10 pounds
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of fat a lot of that weight is going to
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be water weight that people lose because
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this is basically a very low
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carbohydrate diet which will mean people
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will lose glycogen or carbohydrates from
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their muscles and when we lose glycogen
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we also lose water there's also a really
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good chance that people are losing a
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little bit of muscle mass in that time
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especially considering that exercise is
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discouraged on this diet if you're new
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to exercise nutrition one of the most
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important things you can do to maintain
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muscle mass while you're dieting is to
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do some form of resistance exercise
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while i'm all for increasing people's
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consumption of vegetables and some of
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the vegetables that i have mentioned
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here are really really fantastic sources
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of fiber vitamins minerals and
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polyphenols this is by no means a
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sustainable diet there's no protein no
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fat and the calories are very very low
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because most vegetables especially
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cabbage are incredibly low in total
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calories on top of all that
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all the liquid from the soup and fiber
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from the vegetables would potentially
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help to ward hunger off for a few days
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making the diet a little more tolerable
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that said i understand that this is not
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supposed to be a long-term sustainable
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diet especially considering it has seven
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days written in its timeline
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unfortunately this is just another
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example of a hyper-restrictive diet that
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will inevitably end in somebody having a
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really crappy relationship with food and
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potentially with vegetables too i think
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the massive focus on extreme diets and
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quick fixes is one of the biggest flaws
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of the diet industry unfortunately
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people want everything now and diets
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that promise quick results often sell
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well and as if you needed any further
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reason to not do this diet one of the
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commonly noted side effects is
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cabbage so i hope you found this
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interesting and if you've ever tried the
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cabbage soup diet or if there are any
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other diets that you'd like me to review
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let me know in the comments below and
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remember like and subscribe to the my
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protein youtube channel for more great
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evidence-based nutrition information
