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Parents Beware: Those Teddy Bear Cookies Are Full of Trans-Fats

12 Replies

CVS, the mega-pharmacy chain, has introduced a new line of store brand products called “Just the Basics”.

Just the Basics offers shoppers a large selection of practical items from a variety of categories throughout the store, including household, beauty, baby and personal care. The products start at 67 cents and can be found at store locations nationwide and online at CVS.com. read more…

Included in the line are bite size teddy bear cookies for tots. Wanna know how they make ‘em so cheap?

What you need to know:

Take a look at the ingredient list. The ingredients are the cheapest you can find – enriched flour, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated oils. Why use butter when you can use trans-fat laden hydrogenated oils (soybean, the cheapest, of course). Why use whole wheat when refined flour is so cheap?

On to the nutrition facts. This thing contains 1.5 grams of trans-fat. Why in the world would any parent want their children consuming trans-fat?

There is also a blatant and clear mistake on the the fiber value. No way on earth can an enriched flour provide 2 grams of fiber in a 1 ounce serving. If there’s 1 gram in it, that’s a miracle.

Shame on CVS for creating a product that is so blatantly unhealthy. And then misleading with an erroneous nutrition label as well.

What to do at the supermarket:

Buying cookies for your toddler, look for absolutely no partially hydrogenated oils.

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  • Drsuru

    Cottonseed oil is one of the ingredients? That should be programmed into the fooducate app and in every mother’s mind as unsafe in any amount.
    End of story!

  • http://www.facebook.com/paula.jakobs Paula Jakobs

    I would think the word “cookie” would be a good hint that it’s not healthy.

    • http://www.fooducate.com/blog Fooducate

      cookie = not nutritious. agreed.
      trans-fat = dangerous to health.

    • FrugalArugula

      There’s unhealthy, and there’s crap quality wrapped up in a misleading cover. “back to basics” certainly suggests some thought and care in the product composition. I mean, it’s in a DRUG STORE, forget that it’s called a “cookie!”

      I’m so over “manufactured” packaged cookies. Everyone should be. Have some standards people. Cookies are fun and easy to make!

    • Carol

      There are cookies on the grocery shelves that are fairly healthy. Just need to read the labels.

  • Tbarb

    I agree that the fiber content is highly doubtful. What confounds me is that I think the FDA regulates labeling for food products. So how did that happen? If it is a blatant error, then the FDA should take action, no?

    • Carol

      There are over 40,000 food products sold in the typical grocery store. There are way more than twice that many food products (unique SKUs) sold in the US (many are imported), with new ones coming out every day. FDA has less than 4,000 people employed in Regulatory Affairs (which also covers drugs, cosmetics, supplements, pet foods, etc…). Needless to say, they do not and cannot test or even look at every product before it goes on the shelf. Best way to make something happen (not that it will happen fast) is to contact your local Consumer Complaint Coordinator: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaProblem/ConsumerComplaintCoordinators/default.htm

  • http://www.facebook.com/kenleebow Ken Leebow

    It’s interesting that you mention CVS. I have three of them on my “Main Street”. All within one mile of each other. When I walk into them (fortunately very rarely), I am not sure if I have walked into a candy store or a drug store.

    Welcome to our toxic food environment!

  • Lauren

    Basics implies less processed. While nobody should eat a cookie thinking it’s a health food there are better and worse cookies. Butter, flour, sugar are basics to me and fine in a “treat.” The above snacks are basic-ally crap.

  • Jim

    The serving size is 15 cookies.They MIGHT have 2 g of fiber among them. Not that I’d feed my toddler 15 cookies.

    • Carol

      They’re tiny, bite-sized cookies, and 1 ounce is the standard/required serving size for cookies, so they are required to state how many cookies/items weigh that amount. Only cookies with a lot of whole grain flour (or lots of dark chocolate, nuts, dried fruit or saw dust — none of which is contained in this product) would have that much fiber in 1 ounce of product.

  • Fredt

    Here in Canada all flour is processed the same way, split into flour, brand, germ, and middens. Whole wheat flour is made by adding back the components often with less germ.

    The processing temperature is just below the flash point, so all the vitamins are destroyed. All the flour is enriched by adding back the chemicals form of the vitamins.

    Most of the minerals are bound into phylates that require soaking to sprouting to become bio-available to humans, so our present flours are basically empty calories that displaces nutritious foods.

    There are a few stone grinding artesian mills that do a few hundred tone per year. All flour should be avoided, and just take the chemical that you need as vitamins or just eat real vegetables and meat, avoid sugars, grains, lubricants, manufactured eatable products.

    But what do I know.