Yes, Girl Scout Cookies are okay to eat
Issue #271: the top highlights on Medium lately + brevity at work
Hello, it’s Girl Scout Cookie season (Jan-April) in the U.S., aka the time of year when I vaguely crave minty chocolate discs… though I don’t think I’ve actually had one since the early aughts. If you’re reading from a country that doesn’t sell limited-edition carbs every winter to raise money for cool trips, here’s a primer. The tradition began in 1917, when a troupe of Girl Scouts in Oklahoma started selling homemade baked goods to raise money for team-building and character-building activities. Today, there are ~1.7 million Girl Scouts in America; participation involves “life skills, STEM, the outdoors, and entrepreneurship” training — most of which is funded via an $800 million cookie business. A single, very powerful yet understated cookie makes up 25% of sales: the hallowed Thin Mint.*
Last December, a study from Moms Across America claimed Thin Mints — and all Girl Scout cookies — are unfit for kids because 24 out of 25 cookies they sampled contained glyphosate (an herbicide) and “toxic metals.” MAA tested 13 types of Girl Scout cookies and found the same patterns across each of them. The claims went viral. On TikTok, moms claimed you should bake your own to keep your kids safe.
On Medium, public health scientist Dr. Jess Steier adds crucial context about these claims. Essentially, levels of glyphosate in these cookies fall well within established food safety guidelines. A 66-pound child would need to eat over 9,000 cookies before levels of any of these chemicals would approach the most conservative daily limits for kids. Also, the MAA study omitted an important fact. All foods contain trace amounts of heavy metals (like lead or aluminum), and the amounts in Thin Mints match those in organic vegetables grown in regular soil. “These trace amounts reflect the natural presence of elements in our environment rather than contamination,” Steier writes. The CDC corroborated her analysis.
Everything comes from somewhere, and the world is a risky place — even if you’re drinking seemingly “pure” water directly from a lush mountain stream. That’s why food safety guidelines give ranges instead of prohibiting (most) heavy metals wholesale. This is the classic toxicology maxim that humans have held dear for hundreds of years: It’s the dosage that makes the poison.
*There are two types of Thin Mints, one from each of the commercial bakeries Girl Scouts contracts. The differences are clear but subtle.
🔥 The most-highlighted sentences on Medium this month
- “So, again, I have a hard time understanding why a quarterback kneeling during the national anthem was cause for a ‘rational’ national uproar, but for some reason it’s ‘irrational’ to hold resentment toward the person who incited riots which not only undermined our government and disrespected our history, but also traumatized thousands of staffers and their loved ones.” — Gladys of Monmouth, “I was working at the Capitol during the Jan 6 riots. Here’s what I think.”
- “The biggest takeaway is discipline beats motivation. I didn’t feel like planking daily, but I did it anyway.” — Sufyan Maan, M.Eng
- “Am I underdressed, or under duress?” — Nancy Santos
💬 A dose of practical wisdom
On Slack, Teams, or any work messaging platform, brevity is a form of generosity. (Claudia Castañon Ferreiro)
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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis
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