I don't usually address the latest fad diet, but the so-called Cookie Diet pushes my buttons. In today’s New York Times, an article entitled “A Few Cookies a Day to Keep the Pounds Away?” by Abby Ellin details the kooky regimen of a certain Dr. Sanford Siegel, whose Dr. Siegel ‘s Cookie Diet apparently has fans ranging from legal secretaries to celebrities singing its praises. The diet calls for eating six of Dr. Siegel’s cookies a day, and one “real” meal, for a total of about 1,000 calories.
I have in jest called my Food Plan “the dessert diet” because I recommend that my patients eat dessert with lunch and dinner whether they are anorexic, bulimic, or binge eaters. Desserts, or fun food, as I like to call them, are foods eaten just for pleasure at the end of a meal to truly end the meal, not leave the door open for snacking or bingeing later on in the evening. The desserts I refer to need to taste good and sate the appetite, which generally means they have to contain fat and sugar in some satisfying combination.
What I recommend to my patients is a far cry from the Cookie Diet. Dr. Siegel’s diet is dangerously low in total calories, which means that eventually the dieter is going to snap and fall off the wagon. His diet also creates a dependence on his "cookies.” A week’s worth of these snacks costs $56, and enough people are doing the diet for Dr. Siegel’s company to project earnings of $18 million this year.
The cookies hardly sound tasty: their main ingredient is microcrystalline cellulose - a plant fiber that acts as a bulking agent, emulsifier and thickener.
The bottom line: the "Cookie Diet" is just the latest fad diet. Don't fall for it.
Take care,
Marcia and Nancy
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