Girl scouts cut trans fats from cookies
If a Girl Scout comes knocking on your door this week peddling cookies, she may have an interesting tidbit of information for you: each serving of Girl Scout cookies is now trans-fat free.
By finding what they thought were suitable replacements for partially hydrogenated oils, the bakeries that create the addictive little cookies reformulated the recipes to reflect a healthier attitude. Not only did they want to sell a better product, Girl Scout leaders claim, but they also thought the change sent a better message the the girls in their programs. The Girl Scouts will also now be offering a sugar-free cookie and one that has reduced amounts of saturated fats.
Before you eat a whole row of Tagalongs or fill up on Thin Mints, remember that these cookies are still a treat. In fact, as the Girl Scouts themselves point out, they aren't even technically free of trans fats. Each serving has less than a half of gram trans fats, which allows foods to be labeled as trans fat free, but if you eat two or three (or four or five) servings, you'll be packing on 1-3 grams of unhealthy fats as well as loads of sugar. Kudos to the Girl Scouts, though, for making their annual sale a little bit healthier.
By finding what they thought were suitable replacements for partially hydrogenated oils, the bakeries that create the addictive little cookies reformulated the recipes to reflect a healthier attitude. Not only did they want to sell a better product, Girl Scout leaders claim, but they also thought the change sent a better message the the girls in their programs. The Girl Scouts will also now be offering a sugar-free cookie and one that has reduced amounts of saturated fats.
Before you eat a whole row of Tagalongs or fill up on Thin Mints, remember that these cookies are still a treat. In fact, as the Girl Scouts themselves point out, they aren't even technically free of trans fats. Each serving has less than a half of gram trans fats, which allows foods to be labeled as trans fat free, but if you eat two or three (or four or five) servings, you'll be packing on 1-3 grams of unhealthy fats as well as loads of sugar. Kudos to the Girl Scouts, though, for making their annual sale a little bit healthier.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-26-2007 @ 2:37PM
Nat said...
In addition to making this year's sale healthier, the Girl Scouts have finally gone high tech and created a website that makes it easy to find these delish cookies (http://www.GirlScoutCookies.org). Also, they’ve posted some vintage cookie ads on MySpace (http://www.MySpace.com/GirlScoutCookieSale). Pretty funny, kitschy stuff from the 1970’s, definitely worth a look!
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3-21-2007 @ 4:02PM
Bill said...
A new website, cuttransfat.org is "Committed to the voluntary elimination of all artificial trans
fats by restaurants and the entire food industry". There are links to many articles offering
differing views on the subject. It is a quality site with lots of good information.
The site is also compiling a list of restaurants and food chains that are actively eliminating or
reducing trans fats in their menus.
Visit http://cuttransfat.org for more information.
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