DR. SIEGEL'S COOKIES AND THE "THYROID CURE:" WHAT DOES DR. SIEGEL HAVE TO SAY?
I've had contact several times with physician and author, Dr. Sanford Siegel, who was featured in the
Woman's World article along with me, in the article titled "The Thyroid Cure." Dr. Siegel is a caring physician who believes that one of his most important missions is to help educate his fellow physicians who are routinely missing the diagnosis of hypothyroidism.
As part of the article, the magazine published a recipe for what they called "Thyroid boosting cookies," suggesting that they were providing an "easy-bake" version of a recipe recommended by Dr. Siegel. When I saw the recipe, which includes Chex cereal, oats, wheat bran, bananas, sugar and eggs, I knew that there was no way this recipe was recommended by Dr. Siegel, as it is very high in fat, sugar and starch -- all the things that thyroid patients DON’T need to lose weight.
I checked personally with Dr. Siegel, who has told me in no uncertain terms that people should NOT follow this cookie diet. According to Dr. Siegel, his trademarked "'Siegal Cookie(tm)' has nothing to do with metabolism or thyroid. We have manufactured this product for over 30 years, to be used exclusively and simply for hunger suppression..." He does not sell the cookie commercially.
Dr. Siegel had this to say specifically about the "Woman's World" cookie recipe.
The Siegal CookieTM has been made by us for over 30 years and is used in my medical practice as well as by certain select physicians around the country. It is not available to the general public. (Please don't contact me to request them.) When the "Woman's World" reporter asked me for the formula, I, of course, said, 'No.' Apparently, the tabloid then chose to invent its own 'Siegal Cookie.' What shameful tabloid journalism! The real Siegal Cookie formula has at least 15 ingredients that are nowhere to be found in the Woman's World recipe. Instead, the recipe in the magazine has whole eggs, bananas, breakfast cereal, etc., none of which would we ever be allowed for our patients. From the e-mails I have received, it seems that people all over the country will be baking the Woman's World cookie with the hope that it will remedy a metabolic problem. Ridiculous! It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic. Don't waste your time baking from their cookie recipe.
Warning: The Woman's World cookie is not The Siegal CookieTM and contains none of the appetite suppressing ingredients of our cookie. If you are diabetic, you should be particularly careful. I see nothing about their recipe that would have any value for weight loss. Their high calorie cookie might perhaps turn out to taste good but I suspect that those of Mrs. Field's or Pepperidge Farms might taste even better.
Dr. Siegel is not able to personally respond to the many emails and questions being sent to him at present, but he did convey that he hopes that his participation in the
Woman’s World article will help to increase patient and physician awareness of thyroid disease, and the role of weight gain in helping to identify that condition, as well as the role of thyroid treatment in helping with thyroid-associated weight problems.
