Those who want to fit into a certain dress for a special occasion are usually tempted to give the ever popular cabbage soup diet a shot. It's touted as a fast weight loss dietary regimen. It's also pretty simple to do: Basically, you're just urged to eat cabbage everyday for seven days and you will really lose pounds of weight in a matter of days. This is because the cabbage soup diet makes your body lose a significant amount of water weight.

A basic cabbage soup recipe for this diet includes has the following ingredients: 1 head cabbage, 6 onions, 2 peppers, 6 carrots, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 bunch, celery, 1 pack onion soup mix (optional) and herbs. To make your cabbage soup, start by washing your cabbage thoroughly with clean water. Chop and put it is a large pot. Add water into the pot that is enough to cover the cabbage. Under a low fire, bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the vegetable until its is soft. Add other seasonings. You can have it bland or you can add salt to taste.

A typical seven-day eating regimen for a cabbage soup diet is as follows:

Day 1: Drink cabbage soup as much as you can. Other than bananas, you can eat any fruit you want for this day. You can also have unsweetened green tea, cranberry juice or coffee. Take multivitamins and drink plenty of water.

Day 2: Drink cabbage soup as much as you can. You can eat cooked or raw vegetable. Do not eat beans, corn and peas. Take multivitamins and plenty of water.

Day 3: Drink Cabbage soup as much as you can tolerate. You can have fruits and vegetables but no baked potatoes. Continue taking multivitamins and drink plenty of water.

Day 4: Drink cabbage soup. You can have bananas and skimmed milk. Take your multivitamins and plenty of water

Day 5: Drink your cabbage soup. You can have 10-20 ounces of beef and up to 7 potatoes. Continue taking your vitamins and drink a lot of water.

Day 6: Drink your cabbage soup. You can have veggies and beef but no baked potatoes. Take multivitamins and plenty of water.

Day 7: Drink your cabbage soup. You can have brown rice, fruit juice (unsweetened) and vegetables. Continue taking your multivitamin and a lot of water.

The verdict: At the outset, it's pretty obvious that this is not a healthy diet. It severely deprives your body of nutrients, hence the need for multivitamin supplements throughout the week. Besides, what is lost is only water weight. After you're off the diet and back to your usual eating habits, you gain more weight than you originally started out with. It does not work towards providing you with the necessary lifestyle change needed to lose pounds for life. Lightheadedness, dizziness and headaches are common side-effects and due to the deprivation caused by an overly restrictive and unsound nutritional regimen like this one, collapse is inevitable. Instead of punishing your body for a full week on the cabbage soup diet, it is much better to observe healthy eating practices by reducing meal portions and exercise. Crash diets are not beneficial and overly harmful to your health.