It boggles my mind that in the year 2009 diet food companies are still popping up, let alone have logos such as "Eat Cookies, Lose Weight. It's That Simple." The sad fact is that these companies are in business because people buy their products.
This slogan comes from one of the more recent fad diet scams called "The Cookie Diet" by Smart for Life. I'd be more likely to call it "Ridiculous for life". It has increased in its popularity thanks to a few local radio personalities who have tried the diet and "saw amazing results". Unfortunately, the worse thing about this diet is not the fact that you have to spend big bucks on these products, its their outrageous claims about health, diet and weight loss.
Firstly, the whole idea that you can simply buy their products and lose weight is a bit ancient- Slim fast anyone? The website claims that this weight loss system is a long term weight loss solution because it is not a diet and helps to change your behaviour and lifestyle. I find this to be a bit contradictory- all you have to do is eat our products and in turn you will learn how to change your bad eating habits. I don't think so. By relying on their products to portion out "cookies" and eating only 1 (unbalanced) meal a day, you learn nothing about preparing a satisfying breakfast or lunch made from real food. Yes, if you spread out the cookies throughout the day, you can help to ease into eating smaller portions of food at meals BUT that is if you chose to eat the cookies at breakfast and lunch. The rules are to eat 6 cookies a day- if it is up to you to decide when, you are not learning to eat healthy portions.
Secondly, with the prescribed 6 cookies a day PLUS 1 meal of 6oz protein serving and 2 portions of vegetables you get a whopping 800 calories. Adults need at least 1200 calories per day and anything under that should be monitored by a doctor and is recommended ONLY in extreme cases of life and death due to morbid obesity. Most people understand that eating below their calorie needs results in weight loss BUT what you many not know, is that by eating under 1200 calories for an extended period of time, you metabolism actually slows down and it becomes counterproductive. People actually lose less weight the longer they follow very low calories diets. The body starts to understand that you are starving it and slows down how fast it burns calories and starts to preserve its fat stores. This is how people in very poor countries can survive for so many years on very little food. AND this is why it is so hard to lose weight after years of chronic dieting- they body does not like to be starved and the metabolism slows down permanently.
Thirdly, this diet is not only low in calories but in carbs as well and if you don't know this by now, let me pass the message along- LOW CARB DIETS DO NOT WORK IN THE LONG RUN. Yes, you may lose a lot of weight at the beginning of the diet but the majority of that weight is precious water being flushed from your body (no, it is NOT excess water, our body stores water naturally and for good reasons). After the water is flushed from your body, it starts to break down fat AND muscle while looking for calories to feed your brain. The weight you lose is not just due to fat loss- you start to waste away your muscles as well. The more muscle you have in your body, the more calories you burn and the faster your metabolism runs. By losing muscle, you are starting a vicious cycle of lowering your metabolism, plateauing in your weight loss, getting frustrated, binge eating then getting "back on the wagon". The minute you start to eat "normally" again meaning when you start to reintroduce rice, pasta, cereal, potatoes, milk and fruit you will regain the weight lost. This is because you are putting all that lost water back into your body- not regaining the fat.
I could continue to outline more reasons why this is a ridiculous diet- namely the fact that the website offers no ingredient lists nor have a dietitian on staff (wonder why?! perhaps because no one would actually endorse it!).
Its a bit hard to understand why people will invest in $280 (American) for a months supply of products and scoff at the rates charged (that are less than $280!) by Registered Dietitians to give them advice that they can use for the rest of their lives.
Don't waste your money or your time on this product, no matter what you hear from a (paid) endorser on the radio.
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