I don’t have a big sweet tooth, so unsweetened fruit, unsweetened applesauce and fresh fruit satisfy any normal desire I have for sweets, other than the occasional dark chocolate (which isn’t particularly sweet anyway and is supposed to be good for us). When I do fix desserts, I tend to go for rich over sweet - butter, cream cheese, cream, eggs, nuts and fruit. But a chocolate chip cookie is nice every once in a while. So, when I spotted a “low glycemic” chocolate chip cookie sweetened with fructose from Fifty50 I thought I’d give it a try. The name comes, apparently, from the fact that the company donates 50% of its profits to diabetes research.
The cookie is comparable in flavor to other major brand boxed or bagged chocolate chip cookies. It is perhaps a bit more moist, which is a definite plus in my book. That said, it doesn’t compare to fresh and hot homemade chocolate chip cookies or even freshly baked cookies from NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Cookie dough. Which, since a cookie is a rare enough treat that I’m perfectly willing to wait the fifteen minutes for pre-made dough to bake and get excellent quality, leaves the donation and the health benefit.
The donation gimmick has never really impressed me. If you want to sell to me, take a normal profit, pass on the price savings and if I feel the need to soothe my conscience, I can make my own donation to the American Diabetes Association or other charity of my choice. Which leaves the health benefit…
Unfortunately, the health benefit is probably not that great. The big benefit is the replacement of normal sugar (sucrose) with fruit sugar (fructose). According to Dr. Barry Sears of The Zone Diet, fructose is useful as a sweetener because it doesn’t spike blood sugar levels the way table sugar does. Fructose is also a healthy natural component of fruit, without the baggage of artificial sweeteners reputed to cause disease. So, the fructose is a big plus.
These cookies offer some nutrition information, including diabetic exchange numbers. Oddly, though, they don’t offer any information on the Glycemic Index or Glycemic Load of these “low glycemic” cookies. What these actually are is “reduced glycemic load”, but they are still made with refined flour, which is a high glycemic item. That leaves these cookies better than most chocolate chip cookies, but still with a higher glycemic load than if they were made with whole grain or even part soy flour. They also use partially hydrogenated soybean oil, so this supposedly healthy food has a good dose of trans-fats.
Bottom line for health is that they are still in the category of all other cookies - treats to be eaten only very occasionally and only in moderation (extreme moderation for those with serious healthy issues). I’m not sure it’s worth eating two of these instead of one hot, fresh baked chocolate chip cookie. And for those with the time and ability, substituting fructose in your own chocolate chip cookie recipe (and possibly using a lower glycemic flour substitute, too) can be just as good.
Technorati Tags: cookies, The Zone, diet, glycemic index
