The headline for the front page of the Personal Journal section of the Wall Street Journal, no less, reads “How the Cookie Diet Crumbles”. This was Tuesday, just 3 days ago.

First you need to know I have nothing against cookies. The fact is I love cookies; I’d rather have a good cookie than a piece of pie or cake. My first thought, however, was how significant this article should be given this is the holiday season and everyone is making cookies.

Before I write almost any post I research the topic to some extent. This is what I learned for my first pass over:

  • First, the cookie diet works for a lot of people who report losing weight;
  • Secondly, none, and I mean none of the nutritional authorities believe the cookie diet is the right thing to do on a long term basis and most of them say it’s not a very good diet for the short term basis either. Keep in mind these are people who evaluate their information from clinical trials and research that’s repeatable. Obviously, none of this is available for any of the cookie diets.
  • And lastly is my personal observation that I don’t remember any other kind of diet receiving so much celebrity attention. They are promoted on TV, in magazines and on the Internet.

The regimen for the cookie diets is that you eat prepackaged cookies throughout the day in place of breakfast and lunch and then eat a sensible dinner of lean protein and vegetables equaling about 800 to 1,200 calories. Each of the diets claims to have a proprietary blend of protein that helps you control your hunger so you can stick to the diet.

The diet certainly is simple and that has to be a huge appeal to many. The appeal is especially strong if you’re over 50 and need to lose weight but don’t want to complicate your life.  If you stick with the diet you probably will lose weight especially if you’re taking in fewer calories than you consume. One of my first thoughts, however, is so many of us get off our diets in the evening after dinner. If we could stick to a dinner of lean protein and vegetables and indulge in nothing more in the evening, maybe we wouldn’t have to eat cookies in the morning and for lunch.

My second thought is these cookies aren’t cheap: a two-week supply of Smart for Life cookies is $134; a three-day supply of the Hollywood Cookie Diet is $20 or about $90 for a two-week supply; and Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet costs $59 for a one week supply or $118 for two weeks.

My final thought was the ingredients and nutritional value of these cookies is rather vague. Proprietary blend tells me nothing and the nutritional value I get from what I eat matters much more to me now than when I was 20 or 30 years old.

More on cookies on my next post. Have you any experience with any of these cookie diets? Tell us your short story. Did you lose weight? I can write about these diets but we would learn even more from personal experience.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

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Filed under: Fitness and Nutrition

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