Educate Yourself

Subtitled: Don't be a savvy marketer's silly victim

So there is this thing called Cookie Butter. Have you heard of it?

It is awesome the devil. It's crushed up spiced shortbread cookies mixed with oils to create a ridiculously good topping for bread, pretzels, apples, ice cream, your spoon, your finger...pretty much whatever you have nearby. It's sooooo good. But totally, totally unhealthy. It's cookies, sugar, and oil. The End.

The only saving grace of Cookie Butter is that it was safely tucked away on the shelves at Trader Joe's, a store I frequent maybe on a quarterly basis. I'd get a couple jars a year, the kids were happy, all was right with the world.

But then.

Then.

The other day the kids and I were at my local grocery store, and this has happened:

HEB Cookie Butter. Same company makes it. Same deliciousness. How do I know? Ummm...I guess I had to check it out, you know? To see if it tasted the same? To make sure they hadn't gotten anything wrong during the transition over to the new store?

So of course all of central Texas is abuzz with the news about Cookie Butter's debut at HEB. And that is when the following conversation took place.

Location and identities withheld to protect the innocent.

"Hey, check it out! HEB has cookie butter now! It used to just be at Trader Joe's!"
"Wow, that's cool...and delicious too! Is it healthy?"
"No, it's not healthy...it's crushed up cookies."
"Oh. Well maybe you should go get the Trader Joe's version, 'cause it will be healthier!"

AND, curtain falls.

Oh, people. People. Do you not realize that not everything in Trader Joe's is healthy? And I'd venture to say that more than 50% of the items in Trader Joe's are not healthy? It's basically healthier versions of processed food that you would get in any other grocery store. It's still frozen dinners, it's still sugared cereal, it's still crushed up shortbread cookies with oil and sugar.

But fancy marketing and the store layout makes us think that Trader Joe's has a gold seal of healthy approval.

You've got to go to the source...the label! Find out what the labels mean. What does 4 grams of sugar equate to? (SPOILER ALERT: 1 teaspoon.) What are all these different oils in the cookie butter jar? Can I pronounce these ingredients? (If not, put it down.)

Become a food detective and take some ownership in what you're putting in your body. If you're okay with eating cookie butter (and in sparing amounts, I AM), then cool! But don't assume that a store and its image is going to take care of making sure you eat healthy food.

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