The Cookie Diet what it's all about?

A Miami Doctor is offering up a weight loss diet that may sound too extraordinary to be true. It's called The Cookie Diet, and it involves just that. Eating cookies to lose weight. But these are not just any cookies; they're specially formulated by the Cookie Diet's creator, Dr. Sanford Siegal, and baked in his own specially designed bakeries.

Dr. Siegal says his curriculum helps his patients shed an average of 13 pounds per month. The Cookie Diet works by drastically cutting down the intake of calories a person takes in during a 24 hour period. Rather than eating a breakfast or lunch, Siegal's patients eat 7 of his cookies -but not at mealtimes. Cookie Dieters only eat the appetite-controlling cookies only to avoid hunger.

The only genuine meal Cookie Dieters eat is dinner, when they are allowed to eat six ounces of chicken, seafood, turkey or fish and one cup of vegetables. Siegal frowns upon the consumption of red meats because they are loaded with fat and cholesterol. He encourages Cookie Dieters to drink a lot of liquids, at least eight servings a day including tea and coffee. Also suggested is a daily does of exercise to compliment your diet.

The combination of 7 cookies and a light, lean dinner is only 700 calories, far less than most people eat in 24 hour period. That is what makes the Cookie Diet effective, but also elicited a lot of criticism from critics.

Some dieticians are critical of the diet, declaring it a fad designed to tempt people with the idea that they can eat cookies all day while shedding pounds. They say that 700 calories is not enough to supply adequate energy for one day, and that the diet lacks nutritional value, vitamins and minerals needed for good health. Fruits, vegetables, calcium and fiber are notably absent from the Cookie Diet.

Dr. Siegal has responded to such criticism by commenting that his cookies do not carry appetite-suppressing drugs. Rather, they use oats, rice, whole wheat flower and bran, which contain amino acids that suppress hunger and energizer the body. He points out that his patients meet their nutritional needs with vitamins and supplements.

Another fear raised by critics is that the Cookie Diet does not provide enough carbohydrates for healthy living. The 7 cookies and light dinner add up to about 80 grams of carbohydrates, far less than the suggested 100 to 125 grams per day.

Dr. Siegal says his cookies are not intended to be a life-long replacement for a formal diet, but only a temporary means of shedding those unwanted pounds.

Some of the Cookie Diet's critics think Dr. Siegal's advocated 15 pounds of weight loss per month is too much for to lose in a month, too difficult to maintain, and unhealthy. He asserts that many of his patients do maintain there weight loss, and by using sustainment programs are able to keep those pounds off without coming back to the Cookie Diet.

Those most critical of the Cookie Diet and other low-carb, low-calorie diets argue that these types of eating systems lead to weight loss, but not necessarily the loss of body fat, and they are almost impossible to maintain.