Friday, July 22, 2011

WhoNu Cookies - The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

     Deceptive nutritional advertising really raises my hackles now-a-days, and the advertising for a new "nutritional" cookie has me frothing at the mouth ( giggle ).

     WhoNu cookies are marketed as "healthy" cookies - and indeed , a 3 cookie "serving" has A LOT more vitamins and minerals than a regular Oreo or Chips Ahoy.





They sound pretty nifty, huh? Fiber, 20 essential vitamins, and iron? Huh. 

I should be feeding my children these healthy, nutritional cookies! "

No.

What they fail to tell you: WhoNu cookies have trans fats, the same as in any other Oreo or Chips Ahoy. They have almost 4 teaspoons of sugar per 3 cookie serving. That is a fair amount. Those 3 cookies have 160 calories together. Still the same as the regular Oreos or Chips Ahoy. They have the same highly processed white flour, sugar, and fat - just with artificially introduced vitamins and minerals. Don't kid yourself thinking these are a smart trade if you are an Oreo hound.

 Of course, as a Clean Eater, this isn't a product you'd think of buying. It is highly processed, and not healthy at all. I'm posting about it to point out that advertising doesn't tell you the whole story, and taking a product for its face value can be a nutritional disaster. Unfortunately, this is why Americans ( in my opinion ) are getting fatter and fatter. We have advertising that tells us the product is healthy, and in our minds, we've been taught to think this is "better." And you know there will be people out there who think, "Yeah, I can have 9 of these cookies - they are healthy" - when in reality, those 9 cookies are for all intensive purposes, the same as Oreos or Chips Ahoy.

Investigate. Observe. Think.