Like anyone else who grew up in America, I’ve looked forward to and enjoyed the annual appearance of Girl Scout Cookies. Heck, I even sold a bunch of boxes when I donned that green sash myself in elementary school. But, now that I am a label-reader, these cookies break my heart for what’s in them.

In my favorites, the Samoas, “crisp cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut, and striped with dark chocolaty coating,” not only is sugar the first ingredient, but trans-fats are the second (partially hydrogenated palm kernel and/or cotttonseed oil, soybean and palm oil), and then there is also corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk, and artificial colors. We know that most of the corn, cottonseed, and soy in this country are now GMOs, and since the box does not bear the Non-GMO Project seal, we must assume these cookies are full of GMOs, too.

Not that I should be surprised that 2 small cookies deliver 11 grams of sugar; I mean, after all, they are cookies. What can you expect? It’s just that I would have hoped the Girl Scouts would hold their cookie bakers to higher standards with their ingredients over higher profits, albeit much of these profits go to support Girl Scouting. It just makes me sad.

I didn’t get any other types of Girl Scout cookies this year because I remember thinking that the ingredients list for the Samoas was the most acceptable to me and I stopped getting the other kinds. My family is complaining; they want Thin Mints.

Not that this information going to keep me from eating just a couple of Samoas. For old times’ sake.