With all the bad press that the Boy Scouts have received over the past few years, it is only fair that the Girl Scouts serve a spell under the negative spotlight:

News flash from ABC: Cookies are not health food, anonymous sources say.

Peter Jennings said on March 18’s “World News Tonight” that “someone” made a connection between Girl Scout cookie sales and obesity.

“Someone raised an issue we hadn’t thought of before,” Jennings said. Acting on this news tip, “we asked our medical correspondent, John McKenzie, for his take on this,” he said.

What followed was a series of interviews titled “Cookie Controversy” with anti-junk-food spokespeople and a doctor saying that cookies are unhealthy, leading to the conclusion that the Girl Scouts of the USA really are not very nice for selling them.

Absolutely true. Cookies are not good for you...if you eat the whole stinking box at one sitting. If you make a meal completely of Samoas (now bearing the ridiculous moniker of Caramel DeLites) washed down with a 2-liter of Pepsi, then you are on the fast track to arterial plaque.

Unfortunately, common sense is out the window in this day and age. I predict that within a year, there will be a lawsuit against the Girl Scouts and their delightful (and grossly overpriced) edible wares. Probably something to the effect of how addictive they are which causes damage to the physique (and wallets) of those with a compromised level of self-control.

This is probably irrelevant to the whole subject, but I believe that it is possible to eat sweets and still avoid obesity. My case study is the denizens of my humble castle, where there is ice cream in the freezer and containers full of candy on top of the refrigerator. On occasion, we partake thereof. Of course on many more occasions we eat copious quantities of vegetables and fruits, because my lovely Queen (May She Live Forever) demands it.

We also get regular exercise; although mine is more like irregular exercise. (I like to think that typing has an exercise component to it but My Lady refuses to allow me to count my computer time toward my weekly goal.) The result is that every member of our family of 5 is far from obese. Some of us even appear Survivoresque without a shirt on, but much of that is simply body type and genetics.

My point is that it is possible to eat sweets as part of a balanced diet; and that obesity is not caused by those who manufacture or peddle sugared or high-fat foods. It is (usually) caused by people placing too much of those kinds of foods into their own mouths, chewing them up and then voluntarily swallowing them.