Honestly, the way that the drums bang about the obesity epidemic, I thought cookies would be public enemy number one right about now.

But that seems to be a part of the appeal of the diet. According to the experts interviewed for the New York Times article:

"The Cookie Diet is very appealing, because it legalizes a food - the cookie - that is banned from most weight-loss programs," said Jenni Schaefer, author of "Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover From Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life" (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

"The diet gives people a false sense of control, simplifying balanced nutrition into one food: the cookie," she added.

In addition, the nutritional properties of said cookies are widely subject to interpretation:

[T]here are no clinical studies on any of the diets and that a key ingredient in Dr. Siegal's cookies - special amino acids, which supposedly curb appetite - is known only to Dr. Siegal and his wife.

"It's the particular mixture of proteins that does the job," Dr. Siegal said. "All foods do not handle hunger the same way, and high protein foods curb hunger." The cookies, he said, contain protein derived from meat, eggs, milk and other sources. They also contain microcrystalline cellulose - a plant fiber that acts as a bulking agent, emulsifier and thickener - and are sweetened with sugar.

However, other diet cookie makers are more forthcoming about how the cookies work. One of the competing brands, Soypal, relies on "okara, or soy pulp, which absorbs any liquids you drink with the cookies." Since the Soypal website recommends you drink two glasses of water or another beverage with each cookie, it's pretty clear that the diet cookies are designed to trick your body into thinking you've eaten.

Unfortunately, many of those who tried the cookie diet have found it lacking:

Ms. Pierson, who is in her 60s and lives in Manhattan, tried Smart for Life cookies, which come in chocolate, banana coconut, oatmeal raisin and blueberry last year, and lasted about three days. "I was weak, tired, irritable and hungry," she said. "I hated it."

I guess that just goes to show cookies really are a sometimes food.

A Few Cookies A Day To Keep The Pounds Away? [NYT]

According to a Newsweek piece, a North Carolina Girl Scout named Wild Freeborn got the idea to sell cookies over the internet from her web designer dad, Bryan's, work, and asked for his help in earning her troop a trip to Scout Camp.

In late January, they posted a YouTube video, starring Freeborn in Girl Scout gear, touting her straightforward sales pitch. "Buy cookies! And they're yummy!" Soon after, they set up an online order system that was limited to customers within their local area (so Freeborn could personally deliver them). While her online sales strategy took hold, she continued peddling cookies the traditional way-going door to door and working booths at the local grocery store. Within two weeks, more than 700 orders for Thin Mints, Caramel DeLites and Peanut Butter Patties reached the Freeborns solely through the online form.

Freeborn's success quickly raised the hackles of some parents in the community, who complained that the web pitch gave her troupe an unfair advantage, and brought the site to the attention of Girl Scouts. While the objection may seem purely curmudgeonly in these tech-savvy times, and "safety" concerns may seem disingenuous when the alternative is interacting with strangers, there were real issues: in rural North Carolina, not every family can afford a computer. As such, Freeborn's troupe did have a genuine advantage.

However, the fracas, and the subsequent shut-down, have spurred discussion that maybe Girl Scouts need to get with the times, integrating technology in an organized way. After all, if the goal is business savvy, then the internet's a pretty necessary area of study. And in general, many feel that the Scouts haven't embraced the tech age fully.

On the girls' level, few of the badges that scouts can earn involve technology, and of those that do, the requirements are paltry: the "Computer Smarts" requirement for young girls (or "Brownies") only requires that they visit three Web sites. For older girls, the CyberGirl Scout badge is earned in part by sending an e-mail. "These skills are at a level I'm sure many girls can already surpass," [says one expert]

Girl Scout cookies are an emotionally-charged issue, rooted in tradition and nostalgia. According to a new helpful timeline on MentalFloss, Scouts started selling sugar cookies at bake sales in 1917; soon cookies had become a major fundraiser, a tradition that was broken only during World War II, when rationing forces the Scouts to vend calendars instead. Today the cookies, which are Kosher, are made by only two bakeries. For many families, the door-to-door sales ritual is not merely a good social exercise, but a connection to history.

While Wild's dad feels they've done nothing wrong - "We had to talk with Wild about the ethics of cookie sales, what you can and cannot do...We decided that as long as we weren't taking money over the Internet, we weren't doing anything wrong" - others describe her high-tech pitch as creating "the perception of unfairness" that's antithetical to the Girl Scout mission and want the issue addressed formally. And given that it's something which obviously isn't going away, that seems logical. To our minds, it seems like this is something that wouldn't be that hard to deal with - couldn't troops collaborate with local libraries to ensure internet access? Or get this dad to give a tutorial, sit-com working-together-style? Resenting the interference of web designer parents in a community where some can't afford computers is one issue - and a valid one. But prohibiting the use of the internet is simply out-of-touch. Besides which, if scouts are going to be taking to the web, it seems imperative that the organization make web safety, and the accompanying guidelines, as high a priority as the strictures that govern door-to-door sales. Because anything that gets more Thin Mints from factory to face - and, ahem, more funds for the Scouts - is a Good Thing.

P.S. Anyone know where can we put in an order?

The Quick 10: 10 Girl Scout Cookie Crumbs [MentalFloss]
The Cookie Crumbles [Newsweek]

As children's lives get increasingly complicated and their schedules increasingly packed, many simply don't have the time to peddle Thin Mints door-to-door. As a result, their parents do the dirty work for them, forcing coworkers to buy them at the office — or, even worse, bringing their Girl Scout along to work so the grown-ups are forced into buying (not, mind you, that we'd require much urging). Some offices have apparently instituted a "no solicitations" policy.

One mom makes the point that, for those folks who don't have a local troop, providing a Samoa hookup is really a service. Also, she adds, it's "dangerous" nowadays for her daughter to peddle door-to-door. While no one wants safety compromised,the issue, for the Scouts, is that it's not just about the sales: the whole point of the fundraising is that the girls do it themselves, and "because the interactions boost their confidence and help them learn basic skills like making correct change." Then there are the prizes for big sellers: obviously with a parent involved, the waters are muddied.

Of course, parental meddling is probably as old as parenthood itself, and even in the halcyon days of the trans-fattened Lorna Doone there must surely have been a little pull used to bring in the big prizes. There's a lot right with selling Girl Scout cookies as many places as possible and in as great a quantity as possible on grounds of extreme deliciousness and good works, so from an office standpoint it's hard to see where the problem of having a sign-up sheet in the kitchen lies (although if the "solicitations" ban extends to pleas from triathletes on other floors whom one doesn't know we can kind of see the issue.) The thing is, doesn't it ruin it for the kids? Not just in a "they're not learning" way, but in that way that only a meddling parent can ruin something? Safety aside, there's a lot to be said for letting kids have a project that's just theirs, and unless your mom is a troupe leader, wouldn't it feel a lot more fun and a lot more important to go it alone? No one in the article asks the kids how they feel about it, but I'd be willing to bet a few would like their folks to butt out.

Girl Scout Cookie-Pushing Ethics At The Office [CNN]