Girl Scouts Get a Big Thumbs Down in Teaching Our Young Women Good Nutrition

I may get a bashing for this, but here I go anyway. Step, step, step, that's the sound of me getting on my soapbox. Big sigh....as women, as mothers, as the examples for all girls younger than ourselves, isn't it our duty to do things differently? By the time 2012 rolls around, statistics show that 1 out of every 4 Americans will be obese. I don't know about you, but it seems pretty asinine to have my daughter become obese just because it is now the way we do things in the U.S.


GIRL SCOUTS of America, a wonderful and nurturing program for young girls across the country leads the way in focusing on dollars rather than health. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should be selling carrot sticks to raise money for Girl Scouts; I'm all for a delicious cookie, but as a model for our beautiful young ladies, how about taking a stand for teaching good nutrition at the same time.

The ingredient list on a box of Carmel deLites Girl Scout Cookies is as follows (this is directly off the box in order):

Sugar, Enriched Flour (processed flour), Corn syrup, Vegetable Shortening, Partially hydrogenated palm and coconut oils, coconut, sweetened condensed milk, high fructose corn syrup, sorbitol (guess they needed to add more sweetness, heavy on the sarcasm), whey, glycerin (to preserve all those preservatives), salt, soy lecithin, and artificial flavors #40 red, #5 yellow, #1blue & #2blue

Every one of those ingredients is  crappy, low cost, manufactured, what? I don't even think it should be considered food. And we wonder why we have disease, obesity, and bad health?

On the box of cookies, Girl Scout branding states: a premier leadership development organization for girls.  What a crock! How about teaming up with an organic company that makes cookies with real whole food ingredients, now there's a concept. Raise your voice ladies! And at the same time, get in the kitchen and bake some cookies for your kids the old fashioned way.

Written by De'Anna Nunez