Juice cleanses have long been despised by nutritionists for myriad reasons, but what about a “soup cleanse”?
The appeal of the soup cleanse is that it feels more like a meal than a juice cleanse. Dieters are actually eating something rather than drinking their calories, plus there’s usually more vegetables and fiber in a soup versus a juice by virtue of preparation methods and the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed.
And while all of this sounds great, we were still skeptical, so we asked registered dietitians if this trendy diet was actually good for you. The verdict: It will help you lose weight, but not without a cost.
The “soup cleanse” diet has been a trend since Dr. Oz covered it on his show back in 2014. Since then, its popularity soared last year when websites everywhere from Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop to the Food Network wrote about the soup cleanse and why it’s “so good” for us.
If you search for "#soupcleanse," "#soupingisthenewjuicing," or simply "#souping" on Instagram, thousands of results show up.
And if The New York Times is any indication, the fad has continued into 2016 — The Times spoke with two women who use Williamsburg company Splendid Spoon to get their vegan, gluten-free soups. According to the founders of Splendid Spoon and other soup cleanse companies like Soupure, there are major benefits to replacing your solid foods with warmed vegetables.
“Simmering certain nutrients, like beta-carotene and lycopene, for short periods of time breaks down the cellulose fibers so that it’s easier on your digestive system,” Splendid Spoon founder Nicole Chaszar told Living Healthy about the diet back in 2015.
“I feel strongly that a proper cleanse needs nutrients that support the body’s innate detoxification systems and anti-microbials to kill the “bad” guys in the gut, as those are a common source of toxicity,” goop’s resident dietitian Dr. Frank Lipman said about the diet. “And soup is a good way to deliver those nutrients.”
But Dr. Keith Ayoob, a pediatric nutritionist and dietician, warned Tech Insider words like “cleanse” and “detoxification” can be extremely misleading.
“People don’t need to ‘detox,’ they need to eat good, healthy food,” Ayoob said. “These terms have no official definition anyway, from a health stand point. It’s marketing and playing on fear.”
David L. Katz, M.D., the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, agreed, but did say that only eating soup will help you lose weight.
“Soups benefit from the ‘volumetrics’ effect, expanding calories out into a larger volume, and thus offer the potential of satiety on fewer calories,” he explained.
Basically, you’re eating less calories while feeling more full due to the sheer amount of liquid you’re consuming.
And while the vegetable-heavy soup diet does help you lose weight, Ayoob pointed out it may come at the expense of muscle mass due to a deficiency of protein.
“Without adequate protein, you’ll lose weight faster because you’ll be losing more muscle,” Ayoob said. “Bad idea though, because muscle burns up more calories than fat, so in the long run, losing muscle isn’t helpful.”
If you do still want to give the soup diet a try, Ayoob advises adding protein-filled ingredients such as beans, yogurt, and even milk so that you’re getting all the nutrients you need.
But ultimately, both nutritionists believe you’d be better off eating a healthy balanced diet than giving the soup cleanse a try.
“It’s a fad,” Katz said about souping. “There is no fad that can compete with a prudent approach to the overall diet that balances health, pleasure, and sustainability.”
“One day we will grow up and stop looking for quick fixes,” he added. “But I guess we aren’t quite there yet.”
