The news promos show overweight women stuffing Oreos and giant Mrs. Fields cookies in their mouths, while the voiceover says, “Imagine losing 15 pounds a month while eating cookies!! Find out why people are going crazy for the Cookie Diet, tonight, on the six-o’clock news!”
That’s right…with February ratings sweeps upon us, the news media has jumped on the latest diet craze, and television news shows can’t produce stories fast enough touting Dr. Sanford Siegal’s “Cookie Diet.”
lorida diet doctor Sanford Siegal is author of the 2001 book “Is Your Thyroid Making Your Fat?” — which suggested going on an 800-calorie a day diet to test and see if you had a thyroid problem. After 21 days on a ultra low 800 calories a day, a low level of weight loss or failure to lose are both considered evidence of a likely thyroid slowdown, according to Siegal. You’ve read about Siegal in the past here at the healthlifes.org Thyroid site. Siegal, who has treated many thyroid patients at his weight loss clinic, shared his thoughts in 2001 on the Synthroid contoversy.
And back in 2002, Dr. Sanford Siegal and I were together featured in a Woman’s World magazine article, titled “The Thyroid Cure.” That magazine included a recipe for “thyroid-boosting diet cookies.” The Woman’s World recipe was loaded with sugar, eggs, oats, Chex cereal, and other high-fat, high starch, high-sugar ingredients, and according to Dr. Siegal, had nothing to do with his actual cookie recipe. (Read what Dr. Siegel has to say about the Woman’s World “thyroid-boosting diet cookie” recipe and whether these cookies would actually help you lose weight.)
Now, Siegal is back in the news again, this time with a repackaging of the famous “cookies” and a major marketing push to promote what is now being called the “Cookie Diet,” on which Siegal claims patients lose 15 pounds per month.
How Does the Cookie Diet Work?
Siegal’s plan is actually a very low-calorie diet, in which six of the special Siegal cookies are eaten when hungry during the day, along with eight glasses of liquid, and only one meal is eaten, dinner, consisting of 6 ounces of lean protein (chicken, turkey, fish or seafood only), plus one cup of vegetables.
The total calorie count of the diet comes out to approximately 800 calories per day, and total carbohydrate intake is about 70 grams per day, making Siegal’s program an extremely low-calorie, low carbohydrate diet.
What is not as frequently mentioned is that reportedly, as many as 60 percent of patients on the Cookie Diet are also prescribed appetite suppressant drugs, and another 25 percent are prescribed thyroid hormones.
The cookies, which Siegal claims have amino acids with appetite suppressant properties, are available in chocolate, raisin or coconut flavors, but even Siegal admits that they don’t taste very good. Don’t look for them on your local store shelves anytime soon, however. Siegal’s cookies are available only to patients at his weight loss clinics (five are in Florida, and one is in Montreal), as part of his estimated $400 a month weight loss treatment program.
Is the Diet Effective?
Some weight loss experts say that any diet that provides only 800 calories a day is bound to work, but at what price? Critics say that the diet provides far too few calories to maintain health and energy, and is seriously lacking in fruits and vegetables. (1 cup a day of vegetables doesn’t make a dent in the recommendation that we eat 5-9 servings a day of vegetables and fruit). Others have alleged that the Cookie Diet doesn’t provide sufficient vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Even Siegal admits that the Cookie Diet is not meant to be used for long periods of time. Many diet experts say that once people resume normal eating habits, they will regain the weight lost on drastic diets like this one.
What Can You Safely Do to Lose Weight?
In the meantime, put down that box of Oreos, and start thinking about what you CAN you do to safely lose weight!
First…get your thyroid tested. Experts now estimate that as many as 59 million Americans have a thyroid problem, with the vast majority undiagnosed. Since thyroid problems can cause weight gain — or make it impossible to lose weight — even with proper diet and exercise, this should be an important first step. Are you wondering if your thyroid might be contributing to your weight problem? Here are three steps to take to find out.
Dr. Sasson Moulavi, M.D. started working in an emergency room soon after graduating from Medical School. He was amazed by the amount of illness he saw coming from overweight and obese people of all ages. Many times he treated young men dying from heart attacks.
Dr. Sass, as he is known, was also overweight. He started trying weight loss programs, taking into consideration only the good parts from the many different diet programs. He then put the good traits from all the diet programs and put them together to form the Smart for Life Cookie Diet. Over the past 7 years, Dr. Sass has helped thousands of clients lose millions of pounds and these pounds off with this famous Smart for Life cookie diet.
In addition to the health benefits of losing weight on the Smart for Life Cookie Diet, Dr. Sass is dedicated to making the cookie + diet products as healthy as possible. Health is why the company makes a concerted effort to make the Smart Diet Cookies with over 60% of all ingredients being organic and without any preservatives or other toxic chemicals.
These Smart Diet Cookies are designed to be eaten as a small meal so your blood sugar will stay constant and not spike. The controlling of the blood sugars occurs thanks to the unique mix of amino acid chains within the smart cookie + diet products providing you with natural and powerful appetite suppression. The shakes, soups muffins, crunch and Smart bagels also have these amino acid chains in order to suppress hunger. People who try these cookie + diet products are amazed by the great taste and how the diet products satisfactorily control their hunger. When you join the Smart for Life Cookie Diet Program their professional staff enhances your personal motivation to keep you moving smoothly towards your goal. The Smart for Life Cookie Diet physicians are committed to every client and are available through every step of your customized weight loss program.
Smart for Life Cookie Diet clients lose, on the average of 12 to 15 pounds during the first month. Of course, there are exceptions that have amazed everyone! In a few months, many clients have lost over 100 pounds – so losing 30 pounds on the Smart for Life Cookie Diet is a cinch. The record weight loss for the first month is apparently 37 pounds.
The uniqueness about the Smart for Life Cookie Diet is not only that they succeed in getting clients to lose weight but actually improve their health in many ways. For example, within the cookie & diet food products there are many healthy ingredients like Omega-3 fatty acids that improve cardiovascular health. Inulin, a prebiotic that helps with digestion and calcium absorption, is included in some puddings and soups. FortiFiber, a revolutionary super fiber that reduces cholesterol, triglycerides and stabilizes insulin levels, is also added to many products.
Recently Omega-9 oils were added to their delicious salad dressing spritzer. The amazing thing is that the Smart for Life Cookie Diet never compromises taste.
In a recent interview we saw Dr. Sass stated, “If healthy products don’t taste as good as junk food, we will never win this war. That’s why at Smart For Life Cookie Diet, we try to keep the taste excellent. Smart For Life Cookie Diet products are made with triple filtered water and we do not use municipal city water like other so called ” Cookie Diet (s) ” do. I have many cookie + diet products in our lab that are very healthy but we have not made available to the public because we need to get them to taste amazing!”
Finally the variety of products the Smart for Life Cookie Diet offers is impressive in order to keep the client excited about new tastes and products. They have muffins in 3 flavors with a 4th on the way, cookies in 7 flavors, shakes, soups, pudding, coffee creamer, dressings, marinades and many more products. The variety certainly helps clients to stay motivated.
After reviewing the Smart for Life Cookie Diet, I would recommend this to everybody I know because they really care about the consumer and the products are made with very health-conscious ingredients. Smart for Life Cookie Diet is a safe, healthy way to change your eating habits which will help you lose the weight you need and keep it off – long term. Smart for Life Cookie Diet Program offers a full array of supplements to keep you strong and on track with your weight loss goals. The Smart Cookie Diet squares keep you feeling good and not hungry while training you to not stuff yourself. We also found that an independent survey of competitive programs showed the Smart for Life Cookie Diet had the lowest weekly cost while still providing more valuable benefits!
The Cookie Diet: What It Is
Being hungry and craving sweets are two of the main reasons people fall off their diets. But what if eating cookies and not being hungry was part of your diet plan? The Cookie Diet uses cookies to entice dieters into easy weight loss. After all, what could be more appealing than losing weight while indulging in one of our favorite treats?
But these are not your grandmother’s cookies. Instead they’re designed to be meal replacements — made with fiber, protein, and other ingredients intended to keep you full. They’re not nearly as sweet as Grandma’s, though they’re certainly palatable. They contain no drugs or secret ingredients, other than amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and fiber that act to suppress hunger.
Several cookie diet plans exist; the most popular are the Hollywood Cookie Diet, the Smart for Life diet, and Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet. Sanford Siegal, MD, a Miami obesity physician who developed a cookie formula in 1975 to help his patients lose weight, is considered the originator of the cookie diet concept.
Cokie Diets
Some of the cookie diets are designed for people to follow on their own with some online guidance; others are done under medical supervision.
The Cookie Diet: How it Works
On the Cookie Diet, there are no decisions about what to eat except which flavor cookie to eat, and what to have for dinner. It’s a relatively mindless diet strategy that has reportedly helped half a million of Siegal’s patients lose weight.
The cookies contain select amino acids thought to suppress hunger, fiber, and other ingredients that digest slowly to help keep you feeling full. Eating 4-6 of the cookies a day will give you somewhere around 500 calories.
Dinners are simple: Lean protein and veggies, or a light frozen dinner and a salad. The dinners range from a low of 300 to a high of about 1,000 calories each, meaning the diet has a grand total of 800-1,500 calories per day.
Anyone following an 800-calorie per day plan is sure to lose weight, but medical supervision is recommended for people following very low-calorie diets (less than 1,200 per day), as they are likely to be deficient in nutrients. Most of the very low-calorie cookie diet plans recommend a daily multivitamin to fill in the nutritional gaps. (The self-administered cookie diet plans found online recommend higher levels, of 1,400 or more calories per day).
Siegal says his patients have no problems sticking to the 800-calorie limit, and usually drop about 15 pounds per month.
“One of the greatest motivators to sticking to a diet is when you manage hunger, decrease cravings, and watch the weight come off, and virtually everyone will lose weight at 800 calories,” he says.
Kaiser Permanente physician Evan Bass has been following the Smart for Life cookie diet for more than a year, and has lost (and kept off) 45 pounds.
“The first two weeks were the hardest,” he says. “I was tired with no energy for exercise but once I got used to it, I felt great and could be more physically active while eating cookies daily for breakfast and lunch.”
He says he loves the chocolate chip cookies, especially when they’re warmed in the microwave, and has not grown tired of eating 6-8 cookies a day.
As a result of being on the diet and checking in regularly at the Smart for Life clinic, Bass says he has seen his health improve, along with his food choices and his commitment to being physically active.
“To maintain my weight loss, I still eat cookies during the week and allow some indulgences on the weekend,” he says. “But I keep a close watch on my weight and when it goes up 5 pounds, that is my signal to be more vigilant about what I eat and my activity.”
The Cookie Diet: What You Can Eat
The cookies that replace breakfast, lunch, and snacks range from 90-150 calories each. They come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, banana, blueberry, oatmeal, and coconut. The cookies are convenient, portable, and don’t need refrigeration.
On Siegal’s medically supervised cookie diet, you have one meal for dinner, consisting of 4-6 ounces of lean protein with steamed veggies or raw veggies. The meal contributes about 300 calories. Eight daily glasses of no-calorie coffee, tea, water, or other beverages are allowed, but no alcohol, sweets, fruits, dairy, or other foods are recommended.
Dieters using the online cookie diet plans without medical supervision are directed to eat about 500 calories worth of cookies each day, plus a dinner made up of “sensible foods.” This approach controls daytime calories, but dinner could be a calorie disaster unless it is chosen wisely.
The Cookie Diet: What the Experts Say
American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dee Sandquist, MS, RD, says the Cookie Diet is another version of the meal replacement plan, known to be an effective option for some.
“For lots of people, decisions about meals are tough, whether at home or eating out, and when you can drink a shake [or, eat a cookie or a bar instead of a meal, it simplifies it and helps some dieters stay in control,” she says.
She emphasizes the importance of making wise food choices when following the Cookie Diet, and recommends that dieters include lean protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and low-fat dairy in the dinner meal, even it if ends up being more than 300 calories.
She also suggests checking the nutrition facts panel to see how many grams of fiber, carbs, protein, and other nutrients are in each cookie, as these numbers vary from plan to plan.
As for the very low-calorie monitored Cookie Diet plans, critics say 800 calories is below the recommended level for safe and effective weight loss. They say the 800-calorie cookie diet is lacking in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and fiber, all of which should be a part of any healthy weight loss plan.
Sandquist suggests consulting a registered dietitian before you embark on any weight loss plan, especially one that calls for eating less than 1,200 calories a day.
But Siegal says his clinical experience over the last 30 years has shown that fast weight loss is safe under a doctor’s care, and that any nutrients lacking in the plan are made up for by the daily multivitamin.
“We monitor our patients weekly for any complications and they do fine,” he says.” My patients are delighted to lose 2-3 pounds a week, which motivates them to stick to the plan.”
Another weakness in the Cookie Diet, experts say, is the lack of an exercise plan. Experts recommend that physical activity be a regular part of everyone’s life.
“Physical activity is essential to build and maintain lean muscle, and is an integral part of an overall healthy lifestyle that needs to be part of the Cookie Diet or any other weight loss plan,” Sandquist says.
The Cookie Diet: Food for Thought
For people on the go or those who have trouble controlling what they eat, meal replacement cookies can be an excellent way to control calories and lose weight.
Although the idea of a cookie for a meal sounds like a childhood dream, the truth is that it could get monotonous eating cookies every day. And without regular physical activity and guidance to help you make long-term lifestyle changes, lost weight may creep back.
While you’ll most likely lose quickly weight on an 800-calorie-a-day plan, the cookie diets lack a transitional plan to help dieters get back to eating more normally and to maintain the lost weight.
Dietitians recommend that, once you reach your goal weight, you should increase your intake of healthy foods — especially fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and low fat-dairy — for at least two meals a day, and rely on meal replacements for one meal a day.