It’s (almost) cookie time! Eager Girl Scouts will soon be ringing doorbells and setting up street-side tables as part of their annual fundraising campaign. But how healthy or fattening are these rare treats? We went primarily by calorie counts, although we did take note of the saturated-fat content:
The clear winner Trefoils. The plain shortbread cookies are 32 calories each; the cookie box lists five cookies as one serving. However, that one serving also adds up to 13 percent of your recommended intake of saturated fat.
Shout Outs! – thin, caramel-flavored cookies bearing an inspirational word like “Lead” – are a very close second. One serving equals to 130 calories. Still, that one serving gives you 12% of your daily allowance of saturated fat.
Dulce de Leche, a sweet cookie tasting of milk and caramel, clocks in at 40 calories each, with one serving (four cookies), providing 18 percent of the daily allowance of saturated fat.
Another good choice:Thank U Ber ry Much; although the crunchy granola treats are 60 calories each, with one serving equaling two cookies, that serving gives you just 10 percent of your daily allowance of saturated fat.
And now the bad news: two consistent favorites, Thin Mints and Samoas , have surprisingly high contents of saturated fats. Samoas, the coconut/chocolate/caramel delight, are 70 calories each. But just one serving (two cookies) gives you 25 percent of your recommended saturated fat intake. And Thin Mints, although just 40 calories per cookie, also add up to the 25 percent saturated-fat figure when you have one serving (four cookies).
Of course, there are other nutritional factors you may want to take into account, like sugar and fiber. But if you’d rather not linger in front of the cookie table while scrutinizing the labels, the Girl Scouts have provided a handy reference. Click here for the chart. As the Scouts say, be prepared!
