The ingredients in Girl Scout Cookies have made me stop purchasing them for the past few years. I never really looked at the ingredients, and when I did... I was shocked.

Wow I should have looked at the ingredients before buying boxes after boxes. I thought all manufacturers were moving away from Palm oil, not only because of what it does but how unhealthy it is.

It's in most processed products, not just cookies, and is often listed in the ingredients as 'vegetable oil'. When I buy cookies, I get the all-butter ones.

I don't have any problem with palm oil. It's not any less healthy than butter. And frankly, many processed foods include it, so I cannot see why people are shocked that they haven't read the labels of these cookies.

I rarely eat processed foods and only buy one box a year of GS cookies, but I wouldn't expect that they would be exactly the same as home-made.

Palm Oil aside, I remember hearing these two young women on NPR and I was so impressed by their smarts and dedication, and at the same time how they still sounded like little girls. It was refreshing to hear, in an age where many tweens would rather be texting, sexting, and whatnot and dressing more provocatively than my 25 yr old self.

Now, you kids get off my front lawn.... ;)

I made it a habit years ago not to purchase any food containing palm oil.

This is exactly what the Girl Scouts is for. Teaching young women to stand up for their beliefs, even if it is unpopular. That aside, trying to reduce the use of palm oil and pressuring governments around the world to actually enforce the protected areas they've established through a boycott of palm oil is critical if you care at all about rainforest conservation.

I was a girlscout leader for a few years and what shocked me most about the cookies was that each troop gets only pennies on each box sold. Combined with unattractive ingredients, I felt like there were much better ways to support the girls and local troops.

It's even in Nutella. :-/

What these girls are doing is admirable. They want to be proud to be part of the Girl Scouts, even if it means going against them. Everyone should see them as an example for what needs to be done to change things from within, i.e., USDA, FDA, etc.

worst part is, they use hydrogenated palm oil... nothing like some trans fat for our kids. yuck.

Why don't they just bake their own cookies?

s00ngtype- Baking your own cookies likely has insurance liability issues with it. Plus, it lacks the marketing of the well-loved "Thing Mints."

I think these girls are doing exactly what the Bronze award is. I'm glad they are getting so much PR for a topic that is worth being aware of.

I'm really not liking the Girl Scouts these days. Way to turn an empowering group for girls into a multinational scam corporation that helps make Americans fat while killing orangutans and being mean to the very girls it claims to help. I'm helping out the girls in my community directly through activities, not buying the cookies. The troops really see little money from those sales, anyway. They'd be better off with a lemonade stand.

palm oil is bad for a lot more reasons...

"Grown on massive plantations in tropical nations, mainly Malaysia and Indonesia, palm oil has been associated with rainforest destruction; threatened extinctions of animals, including orangutans; huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions; and gross human rights and labor violations."

Read more: Palm Oil | Rainforest Action Network http://ran.org/category/issue/palm-oil#ixzz1NC8MKrYt

Those cookies are a scam; I knew that when I was selling them 20 years ago. :-) So proud that these girls are standing up for something--it takes a lot of courage to do that, which is exactly what being a Girl Scout is all about. Or, at least it should be.

Sorry - to me palm oil is still a heck of a lot better than our vast fields of monoculture like soy or rapeseed. I also don't find palm plantations as bad as many of the other things one could point to (teak forest deforestation for logging, farmed fish polluting waters, etc).

I'm glad these girl scouts are standing up for something they believe in though. That seems admirable to me. It's good practice to stand on one's beliefs.

At least purchasing this kind of processed food is supporting future female business women...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wy31SsNPv4

girl scout cookies aren't all bad, guys!

I think you guys are over-reacting to the "dangers" of palm oil. Yes, it has resulted in some bad practices in places like Indonesia, but have you looked at the damage that crops have done to the land in Iowa? They are farmer's fields now but what were they before they were turned into factories for growing corn and soya bean?

Interestingly, Palm Oil is rich in Tocotrienols which are proving to be very good for fighting Cancers and reducing Stroke.

I suppose the girl guides could go back to using hydrogenated oils (and the transfats associated with them) or use more butter (i.e. more $$).

Funny how they used to use other oils but had to switch to avoid trans-fats (the deamonized oils of several years ago). I guess you can't win. These are mass-produced boxed cookies...do people really believe that they are good for you and have no negative implications? Every year it is a different kind of fat/oil that is either going to kill you or some corner of the planet. I'll keep eating my two boxes of thin mints a year and making the rest of the treats for my family in my own kitchen.

Good for those girls. I would boycott GS cookies if they were sold here.

Those girls are awesome. Good for them.