How to Do a Soup Cleanse

Co-authored by Courtney Fose, RD, MS

Last Updated: May 11, 2020 References

A soup cleanse, also known as souping, is a detox method where you eat nothing but soups for a set number of days. Soup cleanses focus on feeding your body nutrient-rich vegetables in an easy to digest format to give your gut a break. If you are interested in a soup cleanse, you don’t have to pay a lot of money for premade food. You can make your own soup cleanse by knowing the basic principles and what ingredients to put in your soups.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Eating the Right Foods to Detox

1
Start with broths. Your soup cleanse has to start with your broth, which will be your soup base. You can start with a bone broth or vegetable broth. Add any vegetables to these broths. Vary the vegetables you include over your cleanse so you get a variety of nutrients and flavors.^{[1]
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- An easy way to make your own chicken broth is to place chicken pieces, water, celery, carrots, and onions in a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the temperature and skim the foam off the top. over the pot and let it simmer for two to three hours.^{[2]
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- Make chicken, vegetable, beef or even fish broth to add variety.
- You can also buy vegetable, chicken, or beef broth. If you buy premade, buy 100% all natural with no additives and no added sodium. If at all possible, make your own broth.
- Using or buying stock instead of broth means there is no added sodium (this is the main difference between a stock and a broth).^{[3]
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Incorporate leafy greens. Greens are considered one of the best foods you can eat for your health. They have a large fiber content and tons of vitamins and minerals. Leafy greens have extremely low carbohydrate and sugar content, so they are one of the best superfoods you can eat. When doing a soup cleanse, incorporate a lot of leafy greens into your soups. The flavor goes with almost any other vegetable. You can use them in broth-based soups or make pureed soups.^{[4]
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- Kale is one of the most popular greens for a soup cleanse because it’s one of the most nutrient-rich foods. It provides a lot of vitamins A, C, and K, along with calcium, copper, folate, and potassium.
- Turnip, mustard, and collard greens are other versatile, tasty greens that go great into soups for your cleanse. They pack the same nutrients as kale, but have a slightly stronger taste. If you buy turnip greens, you can buy the turnip too and have two vegetables for your soup at once.
- Spinach is one of the most well-known greens. Spinach provides 839 milligrams of potassium per cup of cooked spinach, which is more than a cup of sliced bananas. It also includes vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, copper, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin E, calcium, and vitamin C. Spinach is also one of the best non-heme (plant-based) sources of iron.
- Swiss chard and beet greens also make great nutrient-rich additions to your soup. They contain a lot of vitamin A and C.
- Broccoli is another great, nutrient-dense green vegetable. Broccoli can be tossed into any soup, or pureed for a creamy broccoli soup.
- When you are preparing your vegetables for the soup, keep all the leftovers. This includes stems, stalks, leaves, and any other part you cut off. Use the leftovers to make your own vegetable stock. You can put them in a bag and freeze them for later use.
- Blanching vegetables before freezing will stop the enzymes that keep vegetables ripening to help them last longer in the freezer.
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3
Try leeks. Leeks are similar to onions, but usually much milder. They are great additions to soups, and provide a lot of nutrients for your soup cleanse. Leeks contain Vitamin C, folate, and potassium, along with containing antioxidants.^{[5]
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Add spices. You can add an array of spices for both health benefits and added taste. Try spices such as garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, fennel, curry, cinnamon, cayenne, and coriander.
- Garlic and ginger are not only delicious spices to add to your soup for flavors. Both of these ingredients have a lot of nutritional value, too. Garlic is believed to help prevent certain cancers, have antibiotic properties, help with high cholesterol, and protect the heart. Ginger aids with digestive problems. This can be beneficial during your cleanse as you try to balance out your system.^{[6]
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- Turmeric is a powerhouse spice with many medicinal properties, along with promoting antioxidant support.^{[7]
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Add carrots. Carrots are a highly nutritional food that will make a great addition to your soups. You can chop up or slice carrots to toss into any soup. You can also puree the carrots to make a tasty carrot soup.
- Carrots are one of the best sources for vitamin A. They also have vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin E, potassium, folate, manganese, magnesium, zinc, calcium, fiber, and iron. They are also a fantastic source of beta-carotene.
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Try root vegetables. Root vegetables make great soups. Beets, turnips, parsnips, radishes, onions, rutabagas, and sweet potatoes make great soups. You can chop them and place them in a larger soup. Or you can puree them for a singular tasty soup, like pureed beet soup or pureed turnip soup.
- Root vegetables are great sources for fiber, vitamin C, B vitamins, vitamin A, and antioxidants.^{[8]
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Eat squashes. Butternut squash soup is a popular choice for a soup cleanse; however, other winter squashes, and even yellow-neck summer squash, can be nutritious and delicious ingredients. Try acorn squash, buttercup squash, delicata squash, pumpkin, or any other winter squash you find in the grocery store.
- Winter squash has a lot of potassium, fiber, beta carotene, and vitamin A.^{[9]
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Add beans. Beans are a great way to get protein during your soup cleanse. Beans also contain a lot of fiber, which keeps you fuller longer. If you’re not feeling full during the cleanse, add some beans to your soups to help keep you full.^{[10]
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- Try kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, white beans, navy beans, or cannellini beans.
- Beans also contain a lot of antioxidants.
- In addition to beans, try adding lentils to your soups.
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Use tomatoes. Tomatoes can help add flavor to your soups. You can make a stew or even use tomatoes with beans to make a detox chili.
- Tomatoes contain a lot of nutrients. They are packed with antioxidants, potassium, and vitamins A, E, and C.^{[11]
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Incorporate zucchini. Zucchini is a great food to throw into soups during your cleanse. The flavor of zucchini is mild, so it mixes well with almost every vegetable. Zucchini has a lot of vitamin C and fiber, along with potassium, folate, and vitamin A.^{[12]
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- Chunk the zucchini or cut it into thin slices and drop it into any soup.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Putting Together a Soup Cleanse

1
Cleanse for three days. Most soup cleanses last for three days, but they can last for one or even five days.^{[13]
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Research source} You don’t have to eat soup for every meal for the rest of your life to reap the benefits. Start with one day, then a few weeks or months later, go for three or five days. Or start with a five day cleanse first. It’s up to you.
2
Eat often throughout the day. During your soup cleanse, start by having six meals for yourself each day. Remember, you are just eating vegetable packed soups throughout the day and nothing else. If you are hungry, add another serving of soup to your day.
- Some people suggest eating once an hour on a soup cleanse.^{[15]
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Search for recipes. Soups for the cleanse can be made by just adding any vegetables to your broth. Another way you can make easy soups is to put one vegetable, like kale, spinach, turnips, butternut squash, or beets, into a food processor and pureeing it to make a creamy pureed soup; however, if you want to get some more ideas for soups, search online. There are numerous detox soups or healthy soups for you to try.
4
Keep the soups natural. When making soups, be sure to only cook soups that include vegetables and all-natural ingredients. Do not eat any cream soups that contain dairy because soup cleanses removes dairy. Make sure not to eat soups with wheat products, flour, or pasta.
- When a detox soup says a "creamed kale or spinach," it means pureed, not that it contains dairy products.
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Drink water. Water helps flush your body. It removes toxins and waste, and it also helps move nutrients to where they need to go. Try to drink eight to 10 eight ounce glasses of water during your cleanse.^{[16]
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Understanding a Soup Cleanse

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Choose a soup cleanse over a juice cleanse. Soup cleanses are much better for you than juice cleanses. Juice cleanses revolve around foods that are packed with sugar. Soup cleanses promote foods that have relatively low amounts of sugars. Due to the juicing process, juice cleanses remove a lot of the good parts of the fruits and vegetables by leaving the fibrous pulp behind. Soup cleanses give your body all parts of the vegetables so you get maximum nutrients.^{[17]
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Decide if a soup cleanse is for you. Soup cleanses are short-term eating plans where you eat nothing but soups for one to five days to rid your body of toxins. The idea is to help reduce inflammation, protect you against heart disease, weight gain, and joint pain, and increase your energy levels. Soup cleanses are also aimed at helping you get better looking skin and hair, along with reducing stress.^{[18]
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- Soup cleanses are meant to be temporary so you give your digestive system a break during the days of the cleanse.^{[19]
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Know the nutritional impact of a soup cleanse. Soup cleanses detox your body by getting rid of toxins. Maybe even more important, you feed your body tons of nutrients when you do a soup cleanse. By eating these foods, you nourish your body and fill it with healthy, immune boosting ingredients. When you do a soup cleanse, choose easy-to-digest foods.^{[20]
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- Mostly you will be eating vegetables. However, you can add clean sources of protein to your soups if you need to. Foods like gluten, dairy, corn, and sugar, and all processed foods are not part of a soup cleanse.^{[21]
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- Pureed soups are easiest to digest. Consider eating pureed soups as often as you can.
- Add some lemon to your water to give extra detoxing effects. Lemon helps increase digestion.
4
Consult soup cleanse resources. If you want to do a soup cleanse, but don’t want to try it on your own, there are resources available. You can buy books full of recipes, plans, and information. You can also purchase soup cleanses where your days’ meals are mailed to you so you have no prep yourself.^{[22]
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Think about the negative side effects. Soup cleanses have negative side effects to think about. For one, it is not a weight loss aid. You only do a soup cleanse one to five days, which isn't long enough to lose any weight, other than water. Soup cleanses can be so low in calories that you don't get the calories you need every day. You should never eat less than 1,200 calories each day. On soup cleanses, you can easily fall below that.^{[23]
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- Soup cleanses do not contain protein, unless you add enough beans or other protein sources.
- Soup cleanses might make you feel fatigued or drained, give you headaches or dizziness, or make you nauseous.
- A soup cleanse might give you an imbalance of nutrients, depending on the amounts of foods you are eating in your soups.
- A soup cleanse might be difficult to maintain since it is inconvenient and takes a lot of prep.