Is Cookie Monster now the Veggie Monster?

thumb|300px|Cookie Monster eats healthy, 1974.

It was widely reported, starting in the spring of 2005, that Cookie Monster would suddenly be executing a complete about-face: espousing healthy eating and moderation, trading in his trademark "C is for Cookie" in favor of a new song, "A Cookie is a Sometime Food," and (depending on the source) even going on a diet. Some names rumored for the change included Veggie Monster, Broccoli Monster, and a variety of other vegetables to replace "Cookie."

However, these accounts (and the widespread uninformed outrage they spawned) were incorrect in a number of respects.


 * It was Hoots the Owl who sang "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," to Cookie Monster. At the end of the song, Cookie Monster declared "NOW is sometimes!" and gobbled the cookie anyway.


 * Cookie Monster has been touting the importance of healthy eating and having a balanced diet as far back as the 1970s. In a 1974 appearance on the TV game show What's My Line?, Jim Henson discussed the topic with panelist Dr. Joyce Brothers:
 * Brothers: "Are you going to use the Cookie Monster to teach children nutrition?"
 * Henson: "Well, we did a commercial for The Nutrition Council with Cookie Monster, mostly to offset all those cookies we forced down his throat!"


 * Cookie Monster premiered his hit rap single "Healthy Food," a song about eating healthily, way back in 1987; almost two decades before the press outrage.


 * The producers have been very clear that Cookie Monster would not be dieting. A Sesame Workshop spokesperson told The New Zealand Herald, "We would never use the word diet with pre-schoolers." (Although "Healthy Food" contains the lyric "You need balanced diet, come on and try it," the word is used to describe a selection of food rather than the practice of "going on a diet" for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss.)

Sesame Street poked fun at the media firestorm in a Season 37 episode. In a sketch in episode 4115, Matt Lauer of The Today Show confronts Cookie Monster about the rumors that he's giving up cookies and becoming a "Fruit Monster". Cookie Monster refutes the rumor, explaining that he eats the fruit first, and then has cookies for dessert. Cookie Monster also says that the media is always blowing things out of proportion.

Cookie Monster had another chance to publicly poke fun at the media when he made an appearance on Martha in October 2006. Martha Stewart spoke to him about eating healthily, catering to the section of the audience made up entirely of young kids. Cookie Monster agrees that he does like to eat healthily, and will eat just about anything. But he's not going to change his name to "Brussels Sprouts Monster," a comment which received a high amount of praise and applause from the adult audience.

Snopes.com, a popular website that debunks "urban legends", posted an article on the Cookie Monster rumor in March 2007.

On the June 19, 2008, episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert blamed fruit's dethroning of cookies as childrens' favorite snack food on Cookie Monster's abandonment of cookies and newfound love of fruit. Cookie Monster himself appears to explain to Colbert that he has not abandoned cookies, but rather learned to eat them as part of a balanced diet. Although he had many cookie-related episodes in the '70s and '80s- "Me like the Robert Downey Jr. of cookies"- he explained to Colbert that he always ate other food as well ("Me not picky").

During a New Jersey event in January 2009, Frank Oz fielded a question about Cookie Monster's shift in diet from a member of the audience. Oz replied that he didn't buy it, insisting that kids are smarter than to eat cookies for the rest of their life because they saw a character on TV who only eats cookies.

In a 2009 interview with Five Minutes With..., Cookie explains he exercises daily, doing yoga and pilates.