David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
A Few Cookies a Day to Keep the Pounds Away?
By ABBY ELLIN, New York Times
October 22, 2009
COOKIES? On a diet? Apparently so.
Just ask Christina Kane, who has tried everything from the grapefruit diet to Atkins, with no success. Then she heard about Dr. Siegal?s Cookie Diet, which involves eating six prepackaged cookies a day, plus one ?real? meal ? say, skinless chicken and steamed vegetables.
?I thought, ?That diet looks so incredibly easy,? ? said Ms. Kane, 43, a legal secretary in Washington, who started paying $56 a week for the prepackaged cookies in June, when she weighed 255 pounds. Three months later, she was 40 pounds lighter. ?If you can make it through the first week you?re in the clear,? she said.
Ms. Kane is one of an estimated 500,000 people who have lost weight on Dr. Sanford Siegal?s diet ? at least according to Dr. Siegal. The gist of it is simple: Eat cookies and lose up to 10 pounds a month.
Or, in blunter terms: Consume a substance whose ingredients and nutritional value are somewhat vague and drop weight, because how can you not when you?re only consuming 800 to 1,000 calories a day?
Dr. Siegal?s diet isn?t new; it was created in 1975, but for years was only available to patients in his Miami medical practice and at other doctors? practices that he supplied with cookies.
That changed in 2006 when he started CookieDiet.com. This year he began selling his cookies at Walgreens and GNC, and opened his first Cookie Diet store in Beverly Hills, Calif. He expects 2009 revenues to be $18 million, up from $12 million in 2008, thanks in part to endorsements from celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson.
In fact, the cookie diet business has proved so lucrative that other companies have popped up: Smart for Life (six 105-calorie cookies a day; a 35-day kit costs $279); the Hollywood Cookie Diet (one 150-calorie cookie three to four times a day, plus a light dinner; $14 to $20 a box); and Soypal Cookies, marketed as ?the most popular diet in Japan? (about 22 calories each; $49 a box).
The popularity of cookie diets is hardly surprising in this culture of quick fixes. Who wouldn?t want to exert the minimal effort to get long-lasting results? Who wouldn?t want to lose weight by consuming something verboten on most diets?
?The Cookie Diet is very appealing, because it legalizes a food ? the cookie ? that is banned from most weight-loss programs,? said Jenni Schaefer, author of Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover From Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life (McGraw-Hill, 2009).
?The diet gives people a false sense of control, simplifying balanced nutrition into one food: the cookie,? she added.
?It?s unfortunate that they?re called cookies, because in some ways it denigrates them,? said John Nemet, the manager at the Smart for Life store in Westbury, N.Y., one of about 35 stores in the United States. Smart for Life ? which is also run by a doctor, Sasson Moulavi, who is based in Boca Raton, Fla. ? offers an 800-calorie-a-day and a 1,200-calorie-a-day plan. It also sells shakes, muffins, soups, cereals and salad dressings, although cookies remain the staple.
?We think of our plan as a behavior modification program, not a diet,? Mr. Nemet said.
Critics of cookie diets are not convinced. Weight-loss plans that center around a diet of below 1,000 calories do not, they say, lead to long-lasting weight loss and can result in potassium deficiency, gallstones, heart palpitations, weakened kidney function and dizziness. The cookie diet particularly concerns eating disorder activists, who have long criticized fad diets, such as the grapefruit diet, Master Cleanse and Optifast shakes. ?Generally speaking, fad diets misinform the public and fuel a fire of continued curiosity with this dieting mentality, which we know gets us nowhere,? said Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, medical director of Laureate Eating Disorders Program in Tulsa, Okla. ?They tend to promise a huge return for very little investment,? he said, adding, ?We need to be very aware of that fact that whenever we skew our eating in any direction; the chances are that we?re going to hinder our health and not enhance it.?
Despite such criticism, the cookie diet thrives. Richard Kayne, chief operations officer at Smart for Life, said he expected $82 to $95 million in gross revenue this year, up from about $30 million last year. Larry Turner, the president of Sunset Health Products, which markets the Hollywood Cookie Diet, estimates that that program has grown more than 50 percent a year since its creation three years ago.
Never mind that there are no clinical studies on any of the diets and that a key ingredient in Dr. Siegal?s cookies ? special amino acids, which supposedly curb appetite ? is known only to Dr. Siegal and his wife.
?It?s the particular mixture of proteins that does the job,? Dr. Siegal said. ?All foods do not handle hunger the same way, and high protein foods curb hunger.? The cookies, he said, contain protein derived from meat, eggs, milk and other sources. They also contain microcrystalline cellulose ? a plant fiber that acts as a bulking agent, emulsifier and thickener ? and are sweetened with sugar.
While Dr. Siegal is circumspect about some of the ingredients in his product, the people at the Hollywood Diet are eager to share. ?There?s nothing magic in ours, it?s all based on the formulation of the protein and the fiber to satisfy your appetite for a relatively low amount of calories,? Mr. Turner said.
The main ingredient in the Soypal cookie is okara, or soy pulp, which absorbs any liquids you drink with the cookies. ?To let the okara fully absorb the liquid and expand in your stomach, two glasses or more are recommended,? they note on their Web site, soypalcookiediet.com. ?Feeling full is an important part of weight-loss success.?
So is nutrition. Dr. Siegal says his product is nutritionally sound, but just to be safe, a seven-day supply of multivitamins are included in each weekly package ?to take care of any deficiencies that might arise,? he said. He also suggests that patients talk to their own doctors before embarking on the program.
Some nutritionists don?t think you should embark on the program at all. ?The bottom line is that you can?t meet your nutritional needs in six cookies and one meal a day. It?s not possible,? said Keri Gans, a registered dietitian in New York City.
?Any diet that names one particular food or food group in its title ? Ice Cream Diet, Whipped Cream Diet, Low Carb Diet ? is likely to be unbalanced and short-lived,? said Bonnie Taub-Dix, national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. ?The Cookie Diet is on this list.? Dr. Siegal insists that low-calorie diets like his are safe. ?I have heard experts say that very low calorie diets are unsafe,? he said. ?I have yet to see the first case where anyone suffered the ill effects of a low calorie diet.? That?s not what Diane Pierson thinks. Ms. Pierson, who is in her 60s and lives in Manhattan, tried Smart for Life cookies, which come in chocolate, banana coconut, oatmeal raisin and blueberry last year, and lasted about three days. ?I was weak, tired, irritable and hungry,? she said. ?I hated it.?
?For weight loss to stick, you have to be able to settle into an eating pattern that you can adhere to over time,? said Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a clinical associate professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. ?That eating pattern needs to provide you with all the nutrients you need while holding calories in balance with the number you expend.
?Diets with a gimmick,? she added, ?aren?t harmful for a short period of time. But they?re not likely to cause a meaningful change in behavior that will enable you to keep your weight at an optimal level.?
Her advice? ?Keep a food diary, cut your portion sizes, cut out the junk and enlist support from family and friends. Start walking ? daily. You?ll be better off.?
By ABBY ELLIN, New York Times
October 22, 2009
COOKIES? On a diet? Apparently so.
Just ask Christina Kane, who has tried everything from the grapefruit diet to Atkins, with no success. Then she heard about Dr. Siegal?s Cookie Diet, which involves eating six prepackaged cookies a day, plus one ?real? meal ? say, skinless chicken and steamed vegetables.
?I thought, ?That diet looks so incredibly easy,? ? said Ms. Kane, 43, a legal secretary in Washington, who started paying $56 a week for the prepackaged cookies in June, when she weighed 255 pounds. Three months later, she was 40 pounds lighter. ?If you can make it through the first week you?re in the clear,? she said.
Ms. Kane is one of an estimated 500,000 people who have lost weight on Dr. Sanford Siegal?s diet ? at least according to Dr. Siegal. The gist of it is simple: Eat cookies and lose up to 10 pounds a month.
Or, in blunter terms: Consume a substance whose ingredients and nutritional value are somewhat vague and drop weight, because how can you not when you?re only consuming 800 to 1,000 calories a day?
Dr. Siegal?s diet isn?t new; it was created in 1975, but for years was only available to patients in his Miami medical practice and at other doctors? practices that he supplied with cookies.
That changed in 2006 when he started CookieDiet.com. This year he began selling his cookies at Walgreens and GNC, and opened his first Cookie Diet store in Beverly Hills, Calif. He expects 2009 revenues to be $18 million, up from $12 million in 2008, thanks in part to endorsements from celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson.
In fact, the cookie diet business has proved so lucrative that other companies have popped up: Smart for Life (six 105-calorie cookies a day; a 35-day kit costs $279); the Hollywood Cookie Diet (one 150-calorie cookie three to four times a day, plus a light dinner; $14 to $20 a box); and Soypal Cookies, marketed as ?the most popular diet in Japan? (about 22 calories each; $49 a box).
The popularity of cookie diets is hardly surprising in this culture of quick fixes. Who wouldn?t want to exert the minimal effort to get long-lasting results? Who wouldn?t want to lose weight by consuming something verboten on most diets?
?The Cookie Diet is very appealing, because it legalizes a food ? the cookie ? that is banned from most weight-loss programs,? said Jenni Schaefer, author of Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover From Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life (McGraw-Hill, 2009).
?The diet gives people a false sense of control, simplifying balanced nutrition into one food: the cookie,? she added.
?It?s unfortunate that they?re called cookies, because in some ways it denigrates them,? said John Nemet, the manager at the Smart for Life store in Westbury, N.Y., one of about 35 stores in the United States. Smart for Life ? which is also run by a doctor, Sasson Moulavi, who is based in Boca Raton, Fla. ? offers an 800-calorie-a-day and a 1,200-calorie-a-day plan. It also sells shakes, muffins, soups, cereals and salad dressings, although cookies remain the staple.
?We think of our plan as a behavior modification program, not a diet,? Mr. Nemet said.
Critics of cookie diets are not convinced. Weight-loss plans that center around a diet of below 1,000 calories do not, they say, lead to long-lasting weight loss and can result in potassium deficiency, gallstones, heart palpitations, weakened kidney function and dizziness. The cookie diet particularly concerns eating disorder activists, who have long criticized fad diets, such as the grapefruit diet, Master Cleanse and Optifast shakes. ?Generally speaking, fad diets misinform the public and fuel a fire of continued curiosity with this dieting mentality, which we know gets us nowhere,? said Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, medical director of Laureate Eating Disorders Program in Tulsa, Okla. ?They tend to promise a huge return for very little investment,? he said, adding, ?We need to be very aware of that fact that whenever we skew our eating in any direction; the chances are that we?re going to hinder our health and not enhance it.?
Despite such criticism, the cookie diet thrives. Richard Kayne, chief operations officer at Smart for Life, said he expected $82 to $95 million in gross revenue this year, up from about $30 million last year. Larry Turner, the president of Sunset Health Products, which markets the Hollywood Cookie Diet, estimates that that program has grown more than 50 percent a year since its creation three years ago.
Never mind that there are no clinical studies on any of the diets and that a key ingredient in Dr. Siegal?s cookies ? special amino acids, which supposedly curb appetite ? is known only to Dr. Siegal and his wife.
?It?s the particular mixture of proteins that does the job,? Dr. Siegal said. ?All foods do not handle hunger the same way, and high protein foods curb hunger.? The cookies, he said, contain protein derived from meat, eggs, milk and other sources. They also contain microcrystalline cellulose ? a plant fiber that acts as a bulking agent, emulsifier and thickener ? and are sweetened with sugar.
While Dr. Siegal is circumspect about some of the ingredients in his product, the people at the Hollywood Diet are eager to share. ?There?s nothing magic in ours, it?s all based on the formulation of the protein and the fiber to satisfy your appetite for a relatively low amount of calories,? Mr. Turner said.
The main ingredient in the Soypal cookie is okara, or soy pulp, which absorbs any liquids you drink with the cookies. ?To let the okara fully absorb the liquid and expand in your stomach, two glasses or more are recommended,? they note on their Web site, soypalcookiediet.com. ?Feeling full is an important part of weight-loss success.?
So is nutrition. Dr. Siegal says his product is nutritionally sound, but just to be safe, a seven-day supply of multivitamins are included in each weekly package ?to take care of any deficiencies that might arise,? he said. He also suggests that patients talk to their own doctors before embarking on the program.
Some nutritionists don?t think you should embark on the program at all. ?The bottom line is that you can?t meet your nutritional needs in six cookies and one meal a day. It?s not possible,? said Keri Gans, a registered dietitian in New York City.
?Any diet that names one particular food or food group in its title ? Ice Cream Diet, Whipped Cream Diet, Low Carb Diet ? is likely to be unbalanced and short-lived,? said Bonnie Taub-Dix, national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. ?The Cookie Diet is on this list.? Dr. Siegal insists that low-calorie diets like his are safe. ?I have heard experts say that very low calorie diets are unsafe,? he said. ?I have yet to see the first case where anyone suffered the ill effects of a low calorie diet.? That?s not what Diane Pierson thinks. Ms. Pierson, who is in her 60s and lives in Manhattan, tried Smart for Life cookies, which come in chocolate, banana coconut, oatmeal raisin and blueberry last year, and lasted about three days. ?I was weak, tired, irritable and hungry,? she said. ?I hated it.?
?For weight loss to stick, you have to be able to settle into an eating pattern that you can adhere to over time,? said Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a clinical associate professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. ?That eating pattern needs to provide you with all the nutrients you need while holding calories in balance with the number you expend.
?Diets with a gimmick,? she added, ?aren?t harmful for a short period of time. But they?re not likely to cause a meaningful change in behavior that will enable you to keep your weight at an optimal level.?
Her advice? ?Keep a food diary, cut your portion sizes, cut out the junk and enlist support from family and friends. Start walking ? daily. You?ll be better off.?
