Did you happen to catch the news story about the Girl Scout from Michigan who sold 17,328 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies? She was rewarded with a 10-day trip to Europe for her and her Troop, as well as an appearance on the Today show and other national media coverage. But, why is no one talking about the implications of her actions?
Granted, we shouldn’t hold the young entrepreneur responsible for the weakness of her customers. But, for simplicity sake, let’s say she sold all of one type of cookie – the Lemonades iced lemon shortbread cookies. Her record sales would equal the following:
- Calories – 20,793,600
- Fat – 970,368 grams
- Saturated Fat – 554,496 grams
- Sugar – 1,247,616 grams
Well at least there’s no trans fat, right? Well, the good old USDA allows food manufacturers to state that their serving has zero grams of trans fats if it contains less than 0.5 grams – so technically, a box could have as much as 3.92 grams of trans fat without copping to it! Which means that these staggering numbers could include 67,926 grams of trans fats!
For full disclosure, yes I did buy boxes of cookies from my niece, and yes the Girl Scouts do sell dried fruit and nut mixes as well, but…
- My wife and I are able to control our consumption of junk food
- Dried fruit mixes have their own issues (preservatives, etc.)
- My wife has the kind of meatbolism that lets her eat whatever she wants
If 75% of Americans can now be classified as Overweight or Obese, I’m guessing most of those cookies will be consumed sooner rather than later.
Maybe it’s time for the Girl Scouts to find a different way to raise money – how about selling real fruit or gym memberships…if they truly care about the girls’ futures.
According to researchers at the University of California at San Diego and Harvard, if your friends or family are overweight, there is an increased chance you are (or will be) overweight as well. A 32-year study tracked the weight records of more than 12,000 people, and found that the chances of becoming obese went up if a friend, sibling or spouse also gained too much weight – an increased risk of 57 percent, 40 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Researchers concluded that the participants were influenced by similar attitudes, behaviors and acceptance of obesity – in other words, you may not feel so bad about being fat if your best friends and closest relatives are fat. The researchers suggested that their findings may have implications for how to better deal with obesity – rather than treating individuals, it might be more useful to treat groups of friends and relatives together.
