Because my husband usually rises before me and switches on the tv in the other room, I often wake to the childhood jingle about stealing cookies from the cookie jar, repeated by a woman and a man touting their weight loss success on the Cookie Diet. It really bugs me, initially just because of the ad. Then I start thinking about the diet. The concept of the ad is just not right. The advertisers are playing off folks’ love of cookies and the extra appeal of being “forbidden.” But the ploy is just another example of how misguided weight loss mantras continue to be fostered. It reinforces the idea that cookies are something we have to sneak. Even if it’s supposedly said in jest, weight-struggling adults buy right into the idea because, well, that’s what diets have told us for years — cookies are off-limits.

Original Source What’s Wrong with Stealing Cookies from the Cookie Jar