Photo Credit: Jonathan Spielman

It’s tough to come across a student in our school who isn’t entirely infatuated with the cafeteria’s cookies: soft, chocolatey, and warm. This year we have been blessed with fifth period lunch. So, although we’re practically eating at the crack of dawn (11 o’clock in the morning), the cookies are always at their best during fifth period: warm, gooey, and freshly baked.

Just imagine — you walk into the cafeteria and the tantalizing aroma overcomes you, immediately zonking you into a sweet trance. And almost nobody can buy just one cookie. It takes at least two to be satiated and, throughout our years of high school, this minimum number has been proven axiomatic time and time again. But how many is too many?

As the health conscious young women we are, we realized that an average intake of 5 cookies a day isn’t the best choice for our nutrition. We decided to dig up the cold hard truth and serve it with a side of cookies. This may sound like the opening of a bad 90’s sitcom, but you’ll have to read on to see how the cookie crumbles.

A DELICIOUS WHO DONE IT!

Before we begin the tale of our investigation, we would like to make clear that we are by no means bashing the cafeteria. The staff is lovely (and they were very helpful in providing the information we needed in order to write this article), the food choices are excellent, and the prices are fair and reasonable. Our article is solely regarding the health and nutrition of a single item: the cookies.

Our journey began with a hunger for knowledge (and cookies). We were chomping down on some when we spied on the floor what seemed to be a stray button that might have popped off of a pair of jeans! Holy cow!

The question was simple: How many calories were we eating with each cookie? We could only guess.  If it were too high of a number, then, without proper diet and exercise, students’ health could be put in jeopardy.

Our task, therefore, consisted of scouring the cafeteria every fourth period to order up some facts. We sent Miss Streaser in, requesting a list of ingredients.  We left with a name (David’s Cookies) and a mission… and some cookies.

Researching David’s Cookies began with some help from the internet.  We queried their website, which had a lack of nutrition facts. “Nutrition? What is this Nutrition you ask about?” Miss Lis screamed with angst.

The nutrition facts seemed to be obscured in a bottomless cache¹ (SAT word, defined for diligent readers below). Our investigation hit a wall; how were we to uncover the truth for our fellow peers?

We came to the conclusion that we had to go to the source. With little to no hope, Miss Rotondaro sent an email to Mr. David of David’s Cookies. Yet days passed with no word from David and we continued to snack on voluminous amounts of cafteria cookies.

All hope was lost… Or so we thought! Rather than beating around the bush, we decided to not be introverts², and to conquer our fear. So we sent in Miss Lauren Birdsall to get out of the frying pan and into the fire. In just a few seconds, a nutrition sheet was printed and the long awaited question was answered.

130 Calories each cookie. Now, dear reader, you may not know how to interpret these numbers (or see how this is a bad thing) so we’re here to help you out. Here are some snacks that are also around 130 calories:

Yet as stated before, it’s nigh impossible to eat just one cookie. Most students buy two cookies, which would be 260 calories. Here are some things you can enjoy instead:

Even though the cafeteria cookies taste great (and we mean no disrespect), we could be making more healthy and nutritious food decisions. And just to clarify, we’re by no means health nuts (see Mr. Toncic for confirmation). Even though we found out the calorie information for the cookies, we’re still going to eat them — just in moderation, as we hope you do, too.

cache¹: A hiding place

introverts²: A shy, reticent person.

The above article represents the opinion of students and does not convey the thoughts or opinions of Glen Rock High School or The Glen Echo and any of its subsidiaries.