I tried the $65 per day soup diet that's all the rage among the wealthy and elite — here's the verdict

Hollis Johnson

Soup cleanses are supposedly replacing juice cleanses among the wealthy and elite. 

"Souping is the new juicing," The New York Times declared recently.

On the surface, juice's new rival has its merits. Soup is warm, comforting, and feels like real food. 

I'm dubious of most crash diets, but soup specialists, like Nicole Chaszar of New York's Splendid Spoon, claim they're just out to help you eat better.

I set out to see what the big deal is about souping, and if it really is the new juicing.

 

Going into this experiment, I'm willing to guess that souping is probably more pleasant than juicing.

Joanna Slodownik/Flickr

Juicing is not pleasant for most humans, unless you are Gwyneth Paltrow or a holier-than-thou skinny rich person. Juice on its own can be good, but nobody does a juice cleanse for fun, unless that person is a masochist.

But soup reminds you of your grandma or your mother who made killer chicken soup. "[Soup is] really connected to a lot of really positive emotional memories and experiences that people have," Chaszar said to me.

She has a point: when you look back at your life, you'll never fondly recall your greatest memories sitting around the dinner table drinking juice with your loved ones unless you are this woman. You might, however, recall dining on soup with your family.

And juice cleanses are frequently criticized for their questionable nutritional value. Chaszar, who studied at the French Culinary Institute, pointed out how the process of pressing juices strips vegetables and fruits of fiber. Juice can have high sugar content, too. Soup maintains the vegetables' fiber and still packs many doses of nutrients — it's a lot easier to have a soup composed of ample vegetables and healthy oils than it is to eat ten pounds of kale. Additionally, soup cleanses often contain beans and lentils (and some even have meat) as opposed to pure raw juice, so you get more protein. 

And guess what! You don't have to punish yourself on a soup cleanse.

Hollis Johnson

Here's the soup cleanse, in all its glory. A cleanse day costs $65, not too dissimilar from a day of juice cleansing.

The Splendid Spoon offers an approximately 720 calorie cleanse. I personally am not comfortable with eating that little amount of calories — and I need to function as a human being — so here's my disclosure: I planned to try all of these soups to see if they were any good. I did not solely soup. (Chaszar defended the 700 calories as something rooted in the notion of intermittent fasting, a semi-trendy form of dieting. She does not condone eating that little every day.)

Fortunately, Chaszar told Business Insider that my choice to semi-cleanse wouldn't make me a failure — a soup 'cleanse' isn't supposed to be punishing. Splendid Spoon suggests having a plant based protein and an apple midday if you're famished, and she told me I could have a regular breakfast in the morning, or soup all day and have a hearty meal at night. I decided to do some variation on that, so that I could simulate some of the experience a diehard souper might have. Was this, indeed, a cool and comforting way to suffer?

 

 

The Splendid Spoon offers a "weekly" plan — here's what comes with that.

Hollis Johnson

This includes one day of pure souping and five days of ingesting a soup instead of your lunch; this plans costs $95. These swappable soups are heartier, such as lentil and kale, and Ikarian stew. (I didn't try all of these.)

"Our program is really rooted in the concept that small simple changes made every day can have a really profound impact on your health," Chaszar said to me.  

And then, on the seventh day, it's " no rules" so you margarita cleanse. I'm kidding about the last part. 

 

 

See the rest of the story at Business Insider