This is How the Cookie Crumbles

Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. While there are certainly as many recipes for as there are cooks, these cookies have pretty much the same ingredients—flour, sugar, eggs, butter and, of course, the chocolate chips. Leave out half the butter, and the cookie isn’t tender any more. Add some milk, and you’ve made a cake batter. What this means is that one recipe for chocolate chip cookies is more similar to another recipe for chocolate chip cookies than they are different. What sets the cookies apart nutritionally, then, is size.

How big is your favorite cookie?
The size of chocolate chip cookies ranges from the tiny bite-size morsels to colossal treats that are practically a meal. Those homemade ones served on Midwest Airline Signature flights are just 1 ounce each (but the airline serves at least two). During a recent trip to the Double Tree Hotel, I found that their cookies weigh in at 2.3 ounces, or 310 calories and 18g fat. Subway’s are 1.5 ounces for 220 calories, 10 g fat and 5g saturated fat. And Dunkin’ Donuts’ are 4.5 ounces, or 540 calories (one-third of the day’s allotment for most women), 23g fat (half of the day’s need for women), and 13g saturated fat (most of the saturated fat women need in a day!). Yikes!

While a cookie may tout it’s trans fat-free, it’s probably still high in saturated fat, which is the bad fat that raises cholesterol levels. That’s because most chocolate chip cookies are made from butter, which is high in saturated fat, and chocolate chips. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 7 percent of total calories come from saturated fat to prevent heart disease (the Number One killer in the United States). That translates into about 17 grams saturated fat per day for the average woman and 20 grams for the average man.

So, the moral of the story is select a small chocolate chip cookie—thin and no bigger than the width of a hockey puck. Or, if it’s chocolate you’re after, get your chocolate “fix” from a small piece of dark chocolate, which is rich in antioxidants, such as 80- to 150-calorie individually wrapped Cocoa Via products, or Hershey’s new Antioxidant Dark. Chocolate is high in “flavanols,” which act as antioxidants and can have beneficial effects on the body by helping to neutralize free radicals and protect your body against their destructive effects.