So, how many boxes have you Badasses gone through so far? One? Five? All in one sitting or spread out over the past week or so?
You know what I'm talking about: Girl Scout Cookies!
Yes, it's that time of year again when sweet little girls set up shop outside grocery stores and Wal-Marts and Targets and plead with us to buy just one box.
They mean well, right? But those Girl Scouts are threatening to really mess up our 2010 resolutions for clean eating and fewer sweets.
So what's a Badass to do? We could abstain altogether, but what would 2010 be without a few Thin Mints plucked from the freezer (This Badass Fitness CEO believes the Thin Mints are best served 'frozen')? So once again, surviving Girl Scout Cookie season is all about making the better choices, and making them in moderation.
Some cookies are less disastrous to your calorie counts than others, and consider it a character-builder to control how many you eat. C'mon, Badasses! Two cookies a day, not 10.
To help you navigate the many choices offered by those sweet little Girl Scouts, I've studied the nutrition labels to scout out the varieties' pros and cons. Some are not so bad for your Badasses, when you eat the recommended serving size or half of it.
This isn't a fruit salad by any stretch, but read on because you might be surprised at how the cookies stack up:
Best Bet for Your Badass: Do-Si-Dos, aka Peanut Butter Creams (label at left)
You figured anything with peanut butter must be the worst, right? Wrong! The peanut butter sandwich cookies are just 50 calories each, meaning you can have two and not break the calorie bank. These are a better choice when you crave peanut butter than the Tagalongs, which have 70 calories per cookie and almost 5 grams of fat each (half of that saturated). Heck, have a Do-Si-Do with a short glass of skim milk or a skinny latte and call it afternoon tea, American-style! You're still under 200 calories.
Even better, these cookies have only 2.5 grams of fat each, and less than 10 percent of that is saturated fat. Many of the other Girl Scout cookies are 18 to 30 percent saturated fat. They're also fairly low in sugar: just 16 carbs and 7 grams of sugar for two cookies.
Best Chocolate Fix: Thin Mints beat Samoas (Thin Mints label at right)
Thin Mints are probably one of the most popular varieties, so if they're your favorite, take heart: These are just 40 calories each, and each cookie is richly packed with that awesome combo of chocolate and mint.
The Samoas, with their coconut and chocolate drizzle, have 75 calories each. So you can eat four Thin Mints for about the same calories as a two-cookie serving of Samoas.
Nutritionally, the Thin Mints are also slightly superior, with less sugar and saturated fat than the Samoas (8 grams of fat, 5 saturated, and 10 grams of sugar, for 4 Thin Mints compared to 8 grams of fat, 6 saturated, and 11 grams of sugar, for 2 Samoas).
Plus, Thin Mints freeze better!
Just Plain Badass: Trefoils, aka Shortbreads
The recipe for a shortbread cookie is simple: Flour, butter, sugar. Not exactly fruit and skim milk, but the simplicity of the Plain Jane cookie also ends up making it a better option when you have a craving for something slightly sweet and buttery.
The Girl Scouts Trefoils are 160 calories for 5 cookies. Five! That's like permission for a shortbread cookie splurge! And for those five cookies, you get just 8 grams of fat, including 2.5 grams saturated, and 7 grams of sugar. Not bad compared to some of the other varieties. That's less calories, fat and sugar than a lot of the "healthy" granola bars out there. So have a Badass British high tea one afternoon with a cup of Earl Gray, a few Trefoils and a friend.
Honorable Mention Newcomer: Thank U Berry Munch (label at left)
This is the new cookie for 2010, and I was intrigued so I ordered a box (along with Thin Mints and Do-Si-Dos, I confess).
The box brags about these cookies being made with "real cranberries," but don't go thinking you can count this as one of your daily 5 fruits and veggies, OK?
That said, these weigh in at a decent 120 calories for two cookies, and only 5 grams of fat and 7 grams of sugar. They don't taste as good as Thin Mints or Peanut Butter Cremes in my humble opinion, but I did like the combination of tart cranberries with a sprinkle of white chocolate chips in each cookie.
So there you have it: The unofficial, not really scientific Badass Fitness breakdown of the 2010 Girl Scout Cookies. Next time you go to the grocery store and find yourself face-to-face with the little girls asking you to buy a box, shop accordingly!
And when you reach for a third or fourth cookie, remember: Spring is right around the corner, and that means swimsuit/beach season is here before we can say 'Do-Si-Do!' The suggested serving size is worth heeding!
Coming tomorrow: Speaking of cookies, the Friday Confessional! Now we'll find out how many Thin Mints the Badass Army consumed!
