Yeah. Who knew?
Posted on 03/04/2007 7:15:02 AM PST by Valin
My local liquor store is selling Girl Scout cookies, and last week I chose Thin Mints over gin, thinking myself quite virtuous. Little did I know… According to MeMe Roth, who is the head (and may be the sole member) of National Action Against Obesity:
Girl Scouts have an economic, medical and moral imperative to dump junk food as their $700 million fundraising source….Girl Scout Cookies are high-calorie, high-sugar, high in saturated fat and nearly devoid of nutrition. Using young girls as a front to push millions of cookies onto an already bloated population further exacerbates an alarming [obesity] crisis, no matter how cute the uniforms are.
Could it be true that little girls are selling sin door-to-door in exchange for merit badges?
This strange little Girl-Scouts-cause-obesity trope has been making the rounds for a while now: The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof penned a column during last year's selling season in which he worried about the growing menace of "little girls intent on clogging your arteries and killing you with their sweetness." At least Kristof maintained a semi-satirical tone. He knew that he was proposing something on the silly side: "Actually, it's a pity that Girl Scout cookies are being sold by cherubs," he wrote. "If the sellers were Iranians with turbans and menacing frowns, then the authorities might be more alert to the dangers."
Even before Kristof, a television ad produced by the pro-business Center for Consumer Freedom put a Girl Scout on the stand to demonstrate the absurdity of obesity-related lawsuits. "You make them taste good on purpose, don't you?" a sinister trial lawyer asks a beribboned, beanie-wearing defendant.
But now Roth has done it for real—and with little discernable humor. "I’ve always cringed at young females identifying themselves with baked goods," she says. "And I’m not convinced more cookies makes the world a better place."
But of course, more cookies do make the world a better place—as anyone who has ever had a crunchy, coconut-y, chocolate-dipped Samoa can attest. People buy Girl Scout cookies because they are good cookies for a good cause. Most people buy (and eat) them in moderation, so a boycott isn't changing health outcomes for the vast majority of cookie customers. And as Roth rightly points out, the Girl Scouts rely on the cookies for $700 million in revenue every year, revenue that they are unlikely to be able to replace with other sources—even in the five-year transition time graciously allotted to them by Roth.
More choices don't make people fat, bad choices make people fat. In the case of Girl Scout cookies, more choices could even make you thinner. The Girl Scouts experiment with new flavors every year, and have removed trans fats from this year's batch. The new flavors tend to be low fat or boast some other health conscious modification. A boycott (girlcott?) against all Girl Scout cookies by the most health-conscious segment of consumers is unlikely to encourage more experimentation.
This isn't Roth's first anti-fat publicity stunt. She also hosts the Wedding Gown Challenge, which encourages women to do annual checks to make sure that they still fit into their wedding gowns: "Most women I know commit fraud on their wedding days—they weigh-in for the walk down the aisle with no expectation of maintaining that weight year after year." (When I visited, Google Ads for eating disorder treatments graced the right column of her main page—but, for the record, she also discourages "extreme" pre-wedding dieting.)
Roth's message of personal responsibility, and her use of a boycott rather than a lawsuit or a legislative ban are to be applauded. But she is still on the wrong track. Scapegoating particular foods or companies (remember the lawsuit blaming McDonalds for obesity?) isn't a sensible approach. There isn't a single man, woman, or child in America who thinks that Thin Mints are slimming, name notwithstanding. Adorable salesgirls in knee socks are not tricking buyers or leading them down the garden path, most people just buy a box or two of nostalgic cookies once a year for kicks. They know what they're getting.
And what could be more American than Girl Scout cookies? The scouts have been selling cookies since 1917. Roth says that they "sell up to 200 million boxes yearly—that's about one box for every overweight American." But one box of cookies a year each, for a total of 1,350 calories, isn't too bad—certainly not enough to add an extra roll to anyone's midsection or roll anyone into an early grave.
Actually, there is one thing that's more American than Thin Mints and Trefoils: apple pie. Grandmothers across the nation, beware. Unless you fit into your wedding dress—MeMe Roth could be coming for your pie pans next.
Katherine Mangu-Ward is associate editor at Reason magazine.
I'll give up my Tag-A-Longs when they pry them from my cold, dead, fingers.
I gave up cookies for Lent, and the lack of cookies is a definite contributor to misery!
Good on ya! I gave my wedding dress to Goodwill 15 years ago. (I weigh 30 pounds less now, too!)
That was mean, X! I have three boxes of those in the van right now.
Yeah. Who knew?
Next year will probably be too soon for me to see another one of those again..........
I only got to eat one box before Ash Wednesday, and I doubt the others will be in the van for long.
Sally's order form turned up, so in theory, I could pass out about 5 more boxes, but I'm out of initiative.
Hide them in the back of the freezer.
I whined about how cold and windy it was the day we had our cookie booth at Food Lion........well apparently the "feel sorry for them" idea worked. The Troop that had their booth in the same spot yesterday, when it was 65 and sunny, sold less than 50 boxes, we sold over 100 :)
I don't blame you for the lack of iniative...I've been over it. jax wan't interested in the over 100 patch, she was only interested in the prize for 60 boxes, so when she hit that I quit worrying about it.
Two on the kitchen counter, and two more at my office, which unfortunately harbors many more boxes of baked bads.
exactly - the girls see very little of the $ for their hard work selling....I never knew that till my girls were involved in scouting.
I love to see those kids standing in front of the market giving their sales pitch. Learning to sell is a great skill to learn at a young age. Besides, they are cute as hell, I can't help but buy several boxes. Most of the time I just give them the money amd let them keep the cookies.
We have three girls in Scouts, so the cookie business gets old. Next year I may just write a check to each troop - but then I think I say that every year! The little girls love putting on their uniforms and soliciting their friends.
you are so nice to buy girl $cout cookies! ;)
And now some people(idiots) are trying to convince us that selling or buying Girl Scout cookies is a bad thing.
BTW, Mint are my favorite too.
Including Moderation!
I'll tell you something else too.
That little taste of capitalism helped inspire my daughter to get a business degree and now she's got a good job in retail management.
I don't envy you, m' dear, not in the least.
My only and the Troop leader's oldest move up next yesr, she and I are sticking with the Brownies.......at least we won't have to worry about being required to do anything for the other Troop(s) that way :)
Good for her!!!!
I'm a trained Brownie leader; I led Daisies and first year of Brownies with Elen. If I'm not pregnant again by fall, I'll probably volunteer to help with Sally's troop. Elen will be a Junior in the fall, and I don't have the intestinal fortitude to be a Junior leader.
I've decided Anoreth and I will offer to teach Kindergarten Sunday School in the fall. That way we can teach Pat, and he won't threaten some innocent teacher with excommunication because she doesn't speak Greek!
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