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Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet:
Quick Fix or Dangerous Weight Loss Alternative
"Eat
cookies and lose weight!" That is how Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet can be
best described in a single sentence. As the name indicates, the cookie
diet was founded by the Florida based thyroid specialist, Dr. Sanford
Siegal, almost three decades ago. Over the years, this 'one meal diet'
program has garnered the approval of thousands of people who have lost
weight with the cookie diet program, in fact according to Dr. Siegal,
the cookie diet can lead to the loss of about 15 pounds a month. However
if you are enjoying a diet of nothing but cookies, don't you think that
there are potential side effects? After all consuming cookies does not
meet your daily nutritional requirements. In order to find the answer to
this question, let us unravel the secrets behind Dr. Siegal's cookies.
Dr.
Siegal's diet cookies are made specially to be distributed throughout
his clinics. Even though, the exact ingredients are unknown, experts say
that the cookies are high on low glycemic index components such as
oatmeal and whole meal flour, and contain a specially prepared amino
acid mixture that is known to suppress the appetite. This means that Dr.
Siegal's diet cookies have virtually the same effect as most other
weight loss diet gimmicks do on the human body, suppress the appetite,
thereby curbing the dieter's instinct to eat more. According to Dr.
Siegal's diet plan, a dieter should follow a one meal a day program,
that meal being dinner, and during the daytime, his/her food is limited
to six diet cookies, which the dieter is supposed to eat whenever he/she
feels hungry. In other words, there is no definite time table for eating
the cookies. Eat only when you are hungry, however you cannot eat more
than six cookies per day.
However,
appetite suppression is not the only thing that Dr. Siegal's diet cookie
does, it is also a medically supervised cookie with a very low caloric
content. In other words, six cookies a day plus dinner should add up to
approximately 800 calories. So, its effect on the human system is two
fold; it suppresses the dieter's cravings for food and limits the daily
caloric intake to 800, and according to critics, this is exactly where
the problem lies. A mere 800 calories is not enough to sustain an
adequate amount of energy throughout the day. 800 calories is
practically starvation. The human body needs food like your car needs
fuel, without fuel your body will not run. People who have low calorie
diets have low metabolisms and typically lack energy.
With this
lack of energy supply to the body, it is impossible for the body to get
all of the minerals and vitamins it needs as recommended by the RDA.
Even though, Dr. Siegal suggests vitamin supplements as a solution to
this shortcoming, according to nutritional experts supplements cannot
replace the amount of vitamin's supplied to the human body through a
healthy diet. Then there is this argument that the cookie diet also
falls short in terms of carbohydrates as well as fibers, which is are
vital for healthy digestion. Dr. Siegal seems to agree with the fiber
issue, but he counters it by saying that the cookie diet is not a
permanent diet, but rather a temporary solution to lose weight. He has
also conceded that the cookie diet is not a permanent healthy solution
for nutrition. Any diet plan that does not offer long term solutions
really isn't worth wasting your time on. What's the point of losing
weight if you are only going to gain it back. If you are not learning
the proper way to eat while you are losing weight, then what happens
after you've dropped the weight, stopped following the program and gone
back to eating how you did before? You've got it, the pounds come back,
and this is definitely not what we want to happen after all of that hard
work you've put into losing the weight in the first place.
Finally,
Dr. Siegal’s cookie diet program does not offer any workout
recommendations to complement it. This underlines the fact that his diet
plan brings about weight loss only through deprivation and not by
burning down excess fat. This is not at all an advisable or healthy
method for shedding weight. Any weight loss plan that does not require
some sort of exercise and physical activity is doomed for failure.
Through exercise we gain muscle and with muscle we are able to build up
our metabolism, allowing us to shed weight more quickly and more
permanently. Healthy weight loss requires both exercise and a proper and
sensible nutritional program.
To answer
the question whether Dr. Siegal's cookie diet, is a quick fix or a
dangerous weight loss alternative, it is both. It is a quick fix
because, by depriving the body of calories, fat, and other minerals and
vitamins, it brings about sudden weight loss in the dieter and for this
same reason it is dangerous. Sudden weight loss in never healthy, nor is
starving your body of the food it needs to survive. The best and safest
way to lose weight is to join a gym or hire a personal trainer, start
working out and talk to a nutritionist about creating a meal plan that
is best for your health and weight loss needs. Therefore, think twice
before embracing Dr. Siegal's cookie diet for weight loss, because a
quick fix is never a permanent solution.
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