Cookie diet

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A cookie diet is a calorie restricted fad diet designed to produce weight loss, based on meal replacement in the form of a specially formulated cookie.

In 1975, while researching a book on the effect of natural food substances on hunger, South Florida physician Sanford Siegal developed a mixture of certain amino acids and baked them into a cookie intended to control his patients' hunger. He instructed his patients to consume six cookies (approximately 500 calories) during the day to control hunger, and a dinner of approximately 300 calories in the evening.

From 2002 to mid-2006, Siegal licensed U.S. Medical Care Holdings LLC to open franchised weight loss centers. The company opened centers in the United States and Canada under various names including Siegal Smart for Life Weight Management Centers. The relationship between Siegal and his former franchise ended in August 2006. [1] Siegal no longer supplies his products or licenses his name and weight loss system to USMCH. On September 25, 2008, USMCH filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [2]

Cookie diets include the Smart for Life Cookie Diet, Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet, Hollywood Cookie Diet and R&D Diet Cookie. All require 4 to 6 cookies per day, sometimes in addition to other food, such as one meal of six ounces of meat in the case of the Siegal diet.

Criticism

The cookie diet has been labelled a fad diet. [3] The diet is unbalanced and its requirement of 800 calories a day has been described as too low. [4]

Related Research Articles

Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atkins diet</span> Low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins

The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins in the 1970s, marketed with claims that carbohydrate restriction is crucial to weight loss and that the diet offered "a high calorie way to stay thin forever".

Fasting is abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight, or to the metabolic state achieved after complete digestion and absorption of a meal. Metabolic changes in the fasting state begin after absorption of a meal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Atkins (physician)</span> American physician (1930–2003)

Robert Coleman Atkins was an American physician and cardiologist, best known for the Atkins Diet, which requires close control of carbohydrate consumption and emphasizes protein and fat as the primary sources of dietary calories in addition to a controlled number of carbohydrates from vegetables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Fuhrman</span> American celebrity doctor (born 1953)

Joel Fuhrman is an American celebrity doctor who advocates a plant-based diet termed the "nutritarian" diet which emphasizes nutrient-dense foods. His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease, as well as promoting his products and books. He has written books promoting his dietary approaches including the bestsellers Eat to Live, Super Immunity, The Eat to Live Cookbook, The End of Dieting (2016) and The End of Heart Disease (2016). He sells a related line of nutrition-related products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fad diet</span> Popular diet with claims not supported by science

A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; as such it is often considered a type of pseudoscientific diet. Fad diets are usually not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease.

The Zone diet is a fad diet emphasizing low-carbohydrate consumption. It was created by Barry Sears, an American biochemist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-carbohydrate diet</span> Diets restricting carbohydrate consumption

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketogenic diet</span> High-fat dietary therapy for epilepsy

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.

Body for Life (BFL) is a 12-week nutrition and exercise program, and also an annual physique transformation competition. The program utilizes a low-fat high-protein diet. It was created by Bill Phillips, a former competitive bodybuilder and previous owner of EAS, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements. It has been popularized by a bestselling book of the same name.

The Cambridge Diet was a very-low-calorie meal replacement fad diet developed in the 1960s. The diet launched with different versions in the US and the UK. The US version filed for bankruptcy and shut down shortly after the deaths of several dieters. The UK diet has also been known as the Cambridge Weight Plan, but is now known as The 1:1 Diet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grapefruit diet</span> Type of diet

The Grapefruit diet is a short-term fad diet that has existed in the United States since at least the 1930s. There are variations on the diet, although it generally consists of eating one grapefruit at each meal, along with meat, eggs, other foods that are rich in fat and protein, and certain vegetables. Sugar, fruits, sweet vegetables, grains and starchy vegetables are to be avoided. The grapefruit diet is thus a low-carbohydrate diet. A typical breakfast menu usually includes bacon and eggs. The diet is based on the claim that grapefruit has a fat-burning enzyme or similar property. The grapefruit diet does not require exercise. The grapefruit diet lasts for 10 to 12 days followed by 2 days off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Very-low-calorie diet</span> Diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption

A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD), also known as semistarvation diet and crash diet, is a type of diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. VLCDs are defined as a diet of 800 kilocalories (3,300 kJ) per day or less. Modern medically supervised VLCDs use total meal replacements, with regulated formulations in Europe and Canada which contain the recommended daily requirements for vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fatty acids, protein and electrolyte balance. Carbohydrates may be entirely absent, or substituted for a portion of the protein; this choice has important metabolic effects. Medically supervised VLCDs have specific therapeutic applications for rapid weight loss, such as in morbid obesity or before a bariatric surgery, using formulated, nutritionally complete liquid meals containing 800 kilocalories or less per day for a maximum of 12 weeks.

Intermittent fasting is any of various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting and non-fasting over a given period. Methods of intermittent fasting include alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, such as the 5:2 diet, and daily time-restricted eating.

<i>The Shangri-La Diet</i>

The Shangri-La Diet is both the name of a book by the psychologist Seth Roberts, a professor at Tsinghua University and professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, and the name of the diet that the book advocates. The book discusses consuming 100–400 calories per day in a flavorless food such as extra-light olive oil or canola oil one hour outside of mealtimes as a method of appetite suppression leading to weight loss.

The South Beach Diet is a popular fad diet developed by Arthur Agatston and promoted in his bestselling 2003 book. It emphasizes eating food with a low glycemic index, and categorizes carbohydrates and fats as "good" or "bad". Like other fad diets, it may have elements which are generally recognized as sensible, but it promises benefits not backed by supporting evidence or sound science.

Charles Joseph Genster was an American business executive at the nutrition company Mead Johnson who oversaw the development and marketing of Metrecal, a liquid diet drink that became a weight loss craze in the early 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorge Cruise</span> Mexican author and fitness trainer

Jorge Cruise is a Mexican author, fitness trainer and proponent of intermittent fasting and low-carbohydrate dieting. He is the author of The Cruise Control Diet (2019) as well as books on The New York Times bestseller list: The 100 (2013), The Belly Fat Cure (2010), Body at Home (2009), The 12-Second Sequence (2009), The 3-Hour Diet (2006), and 8 Minutes in the Morning (2002).

Weight Watchers or WW is a commercial program for weight loss based on a point system, meals replacement and counseling.

References

  1. Cookie Monsters Broward-Palm Beach New Times. 17 Apr 2008.
  2. Bite Fight Forbes. 17 Nov 2008.
  3. Bix, Cynthia Overbeck. (2015). Fad Mania!: A History of American Crazes. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 43. ISBN   978-1-4677-1034-3
  4. "The Cookie Diet". ABC News. Retrieved December 16, 2019.