Understanding Detox Soups

Can you diet and detox with soups?

By Dr. Roni DeLuz PHD, RN, ND

The whole goal of dieting is to lose weight. Unfortunately, the typical “diet” has a poor connotation associated with it as most people think of dieting as starving. When it comes to a detox diet, however, the goal is to cleanse the body so that it can naturally lose unnecessary weight.

A detox diet is all about getting maximum nutrition and the best way to do that is through veggies.  Vegetables have a wide variety of vitamins and minerals present as well as other healthy components such as antioxidants. The FDA recommends four to five servings a day, but if you were to cook up this many vegetables each day it would be difficult to get all the veggies down.  So, in an effort to ensure maximum nutrition, you have to think outside the box in terms of preparation.  The best way to do this is to either juice or cook soups.

Even if you have never made a wide variety of soups in the past, you probably have at least one or two recipes that you are familiar with.  To keep things simple, you can make your own variation of these soups. However, you will need to remove any of the white flour, white rice, milk, cream, meat, butter and salt from these recipes.  Yes, they will look and taste different, but you can add flavor by using natural herbs rather than these other ingredients, which are more likely to contain toxins. 

When cooking soup, remember to focus on nutrition that will be helpful in losing weight.  You're not trying to please a culinary critic.  If you need more flavor, try adding parsley, onion, garlic or cilantro to your soup.  You can also create your own soups with different combinations of vegetables and seasonings.  You don't have to limit yourself to one or two recipes. 

Soups are easy to make as well. All you need is two cups of cut-up veggies, four cups of water, herbs and spices to taste. These can be cooked overnight in a crock pot and until the vegetables are soft. Once the vegetables are fully cooked, simply puree in a blender or food processor. 

There are soups for a variety of tastes; sweet, savory, or spicy.  Here are a few popular soup combinations:

·         Celery, collard greens, onion, green beans, sweet potato, cayenne, cumin, curry, ginger and garlic.   

·         Carrots, cauliflower, onions, spinach, green beans, seasoned with garlic and salt-free vegetable seasoning.  

·         Broccoli, celery, kale, chard, scallions, onions, spinach and seasoned with cayenne pepper, salt-free seasoning and garlic.  

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