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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.
CHICKEN CORDON BLUES
Steve Goodman
When I first met you baby, you fed me on chicken and wine.
It was steak and potatoes and lobster and babe I sure felt fine.
But now all you ever give me is seaweed and alfalfa sprouts
And sunflower seeds and I got my doubts -
Babe, you left me here with the Chicken Cordon Bleus.
My stomach's so empty and all I got is food for thought.
And I been sittin' here thinkin' 'bout the twenty lbs. of groceries we bought.
We bought ten lbs. of brown rice and five more of beans
And five pounds of Granola and you know what that means,
I'm just a regular fella with the Chicken Cordon Bleus.
Now won't you play me them fat licks!
You know, I'm starved for affection and babe, I can take no more.
You know this stuff is so weird that the cockroaches moved next door.
Babe, can you see that old dog, he's out in the street
He's got a big smile on his face 'cause they let him meat.
And babe I got the lemon and the Chicken Cordon Bleus!
Babe, I'm goin down to the bakery
And I'm going to find me a jelly roll
And some cannoli.
Some French pastry.
A chocolate éclair don't sound too bad.
How about some lasagna ?
You know fat is where it's at.
My shadow disappears ...
Food nazis strike again. Keep out of my kitchen and live your life the way you want and I will live my life the way I want. This is America, not Cuba/Venezuala/NKorea. I have independent thought and will not be swayed by those who think they know what is best for me. If these people have their way we will all be eating tofu and beansprouts and nothing else. This is nothing but a lawyers class action lawsuit dream. Death by cookie--what a way to go.
Cookies will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no cookies
Haha!
Hey they sell the cookie once a year no one is going to buy them if they taste like cardboard!
Fat police have to ruin everything!
Is there anything that this bitter woman cannot rant about?
Girl Scout cookies are not a mandatory item in our households.
They are a voluntary item of purchase. What a deliberate effort on her part to stain the efforts of these young women who are joining together to get some good basics in life.
What children does this woman have--if any? Wanna bet she has no girls at all, and that she would never let them join the Girl Scouts?
What is next? I know what a cookie is...
Don't most Americans know what a cookie is..
I can buy them in bakerys and in the grocery store.
Is her next target going to be the entire stock of the grocery shelves?
Shame on her. This is just disgusting.
I for one support the Girl Scouts. I don't know a single young woman who was a girl scout who was in prison, dealt drugs, tortured her kids or killed her husband. Girl Scouts might have done something right for them, I guess..
Maybe they could sell 'carbon offsets' and the Left will be happy."
Rush calls them "diet offsets".
Gore must have someone somewhere living on grass, seeds and broccoli. Gore is getting fatter and fatter...
So MeMe Roth and her front-group for fascism can eat my ass.
If there is any crisis, it is in how the MSM can discover and amplify the message of narrow-minded busybodies, even to the point tha some bureaucrat or politician is moved to act with the (deadly) force of government to "solve" it.
Now THERE is an idea! Obesity offsets! I can find some skinny little waifs and pay them to remain skinny. What a fabulous idea! LOL!!
Aww, I should have known Rush would have gotten there first :(
This is bad because?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
the cookies are overpriced - but we do like the lemon ones and choc mints and I do buy from kids I know....For my own kids ended up buying the quota they had to sell so my girls wouldn't have to go door to door and annoy neighbors...
glad those days are over.
as an aside, the food nanny state should get lost.
I wasn't even thinking about cookies until I read this. Now I'm going to drive to Kroger and buy a couple of boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
I know somebody will hit it, especially after reading yesterday the 420 pound woman that gave unexpectedly the world an newborn baby...but this woman needs "Do Not Enter" tape wound around her so she won't reproduce.
The peanut butter patties covered in chocolate rule.
$50 says Roth is a member of the Green Party.
,...
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