The cookie diet may take the cake as the world's worst ever fad diet. This diet is based on a mixture of amino acids baked into a cookie designed to control a patient's hunger. Fad diets seem to be everywhere these days. In general a fad diet is a diet which is designed to last for short periods of time, during which large amounts of weight can supposedly be lost. Often times, like the cookie diet, these diets rely on one miracle food with amazing properties for weight loss. In this sense they are something like the old traveling medicine shows, in which a slick talking salesman would expound on the virtues of some magical formula created by a Guru of some type.Sanford Siegel created the cookie diet in 1975 while he was doing research for a nutrition book. This cookie diet consisted of patients eating six cookies each day in place of meals, then eating a reasonable dinner. People on the diet ate only 800 calories a day. The cookie diet exploded to 24 clinics around the world. In the middle 1980s over 200 doctors were prescribing Dr. Siegel's cookie diet in their own practices. The clever doctor came out with soups and shakes that also contained the amino acids needed to control hunger.There is another version of the cookie diet referred to as the Hollywood cookie diet because it became popular with many Hollywood stars. The diet benefited from the media efforts of all the stars who tried it to lose weight.

This diet is similar to the original in that it consists of a cookie for breakfast, a cookie as a snack in the morning, a cookie for lunch, a cookie as a mid-afternoon snack, and then a reasonable dinner. These cookies each contain 150 calories and fiber, protein and minerals.If you're thinking of the cookie diet take Donnie Brasco's advice – forget about it. Eat less, exercise more – that's the formula for good health. In general this is a much healthier way to lose or maintain weight than relying on some fly by night miracle food, even if it is endorsed by someone you recognize from a movie.