Dr. Sanford Siegal developed his cookie diet for weight loss in 1975, according to MayoClinic.com. The diet suggests eating up to six Diet Cookies or three Diet Shakes per day as well as your regular dinner. If you like cookies but need to lose weight, this diet may be worth considering. However, carefully evaluate the pros and cons before starting this diet and remember to get your doctor's approval.
Simplicity
An advantage of Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet is that it is simple. You only need to plan and cook one regular dinner per day, and the rest of your dietary intake comes from Dr. Siegal's Diet Cookies or Diet Shakes. Three times a day, you just need to decide is whether to drink a single shake or eat two cookies, and then you can pick your flavors with choices including Chocolate or Oatmeal Raisin Diet Cookies, or Vanilla or Crème Brulee Diet Shakes. A disadvantage of the diet is that your choices are limited, and you may get bored eating only shakes and cookies for the majority of your food intake. In addition, you will not be able to find Dr. Siegal's diet products at every grocery store, so you need to plan ahead to make sure that you have enough for when you need them.
Weight Loss
If your calorie intake is low enough, you will lose weight. An advantage of Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet is that you will almost certainly lose weight because the instructions are to eat no more than 1,000 to 1,200 calories per day. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimate that most adults need between 2,000 and 3,000 calories per day to maintain weight, and a deficit of 3,500 calories is equivalent to losing about a pound of body weight. This means that the Cookie Diet could help you lose up to about 4 lb. per week. MayoClinic.com warns that a disadvantage to following the Cookie Diet is that you might regain the weight once you go off the diet because the diet may be too extreme to maintain.
Nutrient Requirements
An advantage of the Cookie Diet is that you will probably meet your daily vitamin and zinc requirements if you take the recommended daily Premium Multivitamin and Minerals supplement, since each table provides 100 percent of the daily value for these nutrients. However, the tablets, cookies and shakes are not high in iron or dietary fiber, and you may find it difficult to meet your needs while on the diet. Each tablet supplies 16 percent of the daily value for calcium, so you should choose your dinner foods carefully to be sure you get enough. Even if you do meet your daily vitamin and mineral requirements, you will not be getting all of the benefits that may come with eating healthy foods. For example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that people who eat more whole grains may have a lower risk for coronary heart disease, possibly due to their phytonutrients that you cannot get from a dietary supplement.
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