Fad diets are short term diets in which people are to lose a lot of weight, and are popular because of their claims of great weight loss. Fad diets generally include some super food, like the cookie in the cookie diet, with miraculous weight loss properties. They are usually sold by a series of wild claims, much like the old pitch men pitched in the traveling medicine shows.
The cookie diet was created by a physician named Sanford Siegel in 1975 while he was researching a book on the effect of natural foods on hunger. The cookie diet consists of eating 6 cookies in place of breakfast and lunch, then consuming a normal dinner. People on the diet ate only 800 calories a day. People went wild over the cookie diet to the extent that 14 clinics opened in Florida. In the middle 1980s over 200 doctors were prescribing Dr. Siegel’s cookie diet in their own practices. The diet was quickly expanded to miracle soups and shakes that also contained the amino acids.
There is another version of the cookie diet referred to as the Hollywood cookie diet because it became popular with many Hollywood stars. Stars and starlets made their use of the diet well known, which helped vault it to public attention. This newer version of the diet included four cookies and a dinner. These cookies each contain 150 calories and fiber, protein and minerals.
If you’re thinking of the cookie diet take Donnie Brasco’s advice – forget about it. Eat less, exercise more – that’s the formula for good health. Even if the star of your favorite movie claims to love them, avoid so called miracle weight loss foods.
