An Objective Look at the Popular Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet

Over the past 30 years, many thousands of people have looked to Dr. Sanford Siegal and his Cookie Diet for another of many methods to lose weight without caving into cravings or hunger pangs. Why is this diet special, or is it?

According to the Florida Department of Health (FDOH), Siegal is licensed in Florida as a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO). He graduated from the Ohio University of Osteopathic Medicine in 1956 and has been practicing since 1957. Siegal is the founder and director of the Siegal Medical Group in South Florida and is said to be not only a renowned physician and author, but a weight loss expert.

In the mid-1970s, Siegal created a low-calorie, hunger-suppressing cookie that he incorporated into a six-cookies-a-day weight loss plan for patients in his Miami medical practice. His cookie recipe is said to be a secret blend, containing an amino acid protein formula.

How does it work? According to the Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet website, it's an amazingly simple plan. If your weight loss plan is supervised by the Siegal Medical Group, you eat six cookies a day, but only when you're hungry. One regular meal is allowed each day, which should be limited to a lighter meat dish with vegetables, amounting to approximately 800 calories, more-or-less. In other words, you limit your overall caloric intake - you go on a diet - and you eat six of Dr. Siegal's cookies (at 90 calories a cookie) every day to curb your hunger or as a nutritional snack. The cookies come in a variety of flavors: chocolate, oatmeal raisin, coconut, banana and blueberry.

Siegal and his Cookie Diet have been featured many times in the media, including Fox News, CNN, ABC's Good Morning America. According to the website, three out of four patients who follow the Cookie Diet "to the letter," lose weight at a very impressive rate of approximately 15 pounds a month.

What about the ingredients and nutritional information? As stated, the formula is a secret, but I did learn that the cookies contain milk, eggs, soy and wheat, for those who may be allergic to these products. I also obtained the following information from the nutritional label:

Serving Size: 1 cookie (6 cookies per bag, per day)
Calories: 90 per serving (500 calories per day)
Total Fat: 2.5g
Saturated Fat: 1g
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 150mg
Total Carbohydrate: 11g
Dietary Fiber: 2g
Sugars: 2g
Protein: 5g

What about cost? A week's worth of Dr. Siegal's cookies (42 cookies divided into 7 bags) costs $56.00, plus shipping and handling. That amounts to more than $224 a month, not including the cost of shipping. It's important to note that this does not cover your daily meal and liquid intake. The website says the cookies are intended only to curb your appetite and help you avoid caving in to cravings - all without the use of dangerous over-the-counter potions or drugs - so you can follow "the diet that your own doctor supervises."

In conclusion, this is just another low-calorie weight loss method (versus a permanent lifestyle change) with a different twist. That's not to say Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet doesn't have its place in the weight loss industry or that it's just a passing fad. However, I came across no evidence to suggest that individuals who embark upon Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet are any more or less successful at losing weight. It all boils down to motivation, personal preference and maintaining a healthy weight once the cookie diet is over.

Resources:

FDOH; http://ww2.doh.state.fl.us/IRM00profiling/ProfileEDUC.asp?LicId=356&ProfNBR=1901

Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet; http://www.cookiedietonline.com/cd_pages/about.php