Welcome to Diet and Fitness Podcast, a free audio podcast sponsored by Diet.com. This is your fit, fun, and fabulous host, Lady Diet, ready to give you the skinny on the latest fad diet- the Cookie Diet.

I touch upon this fad diet today because I was driving to work and heard an ad for the Cookie Diet on the radio. Now you’ve heard of the 48-Hour Hollywood Juice diet or the Master Cleanse, but the Cookie Diet? I immediately perked up. I was intrigued because the woman on the ad said she lost 50 lbs from eating cookies. I started imagining an ideal world where, yes, eating cookies was the best way to lose weight. Then rational thought took over. A diet of cookies? Yeah right. Sounded too good to be true. So when I got to work I looked up the Cookie Diet and sure enough, it exists, and sure enough, it is not what it sounds like. Just like you should never judge a book by its cover, never judge a diet by its name… there is always a catch.

Invented by Dr. Sanford Siegal, the Cookie Diet allows for you to eat six cookies a day that are specially prepared with hunger-suppressing ingredients in Dr. Siegal’s bakery. In addition to the six cookies a day, you drink eight glasses of liquid, which includes coffee and tea, and you only eat one meal: dinner. Dinner consists of 6 ounces of chicken, turkey, fish, or seafood and one cup of steamed vegetables. When all is said and done, six special cookies, 6 ounces of meat, one cup of steamed vegetables and eight glasses of liquid totals a whopping 800 calories. 800 calories a day? Hmm… sounds tricky. Most nutritionists will tell you that consuming only 800 calories a day is far too low for an active individual. I am not a nutritionist, but I do know enough about nutrition, and consuming an inadequate amount of calories will do weird things to your body. Ok, so catch #1? A diet very low in calories that lacks fruit and vegetables and essential nutrients. Catch #2? The cookies don’t even taste good. Dr. Siegal himself is quoted as saying, “They're not the world's best cookies — but they weren't intended to be.” That does it for me. If I have to eat six cookies a day for a month or two I would at least prefer that they taste good, or even just OK. Catch #3 is that these cookies are only available to patients at Dr. Siegal’s weight loss clinics.

I’m sure there are some success stories on this Cookie Diet, as with any diet. But I have a hard time believing I could ever stick to it. Not enough punch or flavor to it. Fad diets are fads for a reason. They rarely produce a good product with a sustainable outcome. Fad diets often go to an extreme that many experts in the health field deem unhealthy. I know that I’m only willing to go so far to lose weight. And trust me, it isn’t that far. Next time you hear about the Cookie Diet or the Miracle Juice Diet, do some serious research before you sign yourself up. You might find, for instance, that the cookies in the Cookie Diet don’t taste a thing like Oreos.

If you have any comments or suggestions about today’s topic or any other fun and informative health, diet, or fitness related tips, please feel free to email me at LadyDietPodcast at dietdotcom. Thanks for listening! Have a great day!