NEW ORLEANS — There are really no holiday cookies on shelves are truly “good” for us, but it’s not all bad news in the bakery department! More & more stores are selling mini versions of decadent cookies, and there are other little sweet bites that can double as better-for-you cookies. In today’s Love it, Like it, Hate it, we’re Getting the Skinny with Molly on the best bets for holiday cookies, and which have a full day’s worth of sugar in a single cookie!
LOVE IT!
Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies – by Ben McLauchlin of Swerve | GF, Low Carb
Classic Sugar Cookies – by Ben McLauchlin of Swerve | GF, Low Carb
- Per cookie: 21 calories – 3 grams carb – 1.5 grams sugar
- Ingredients include wheat flour (white flour), sugar, oil, sugar…
LIKE IT!
French Twists – Puffed Pastry Twists by Barry’s Bakery (available at Rouses)
- Per twist: 35 calories – 5.5 grams carb – 2.5 grams sugar
- Ingredients include unbleached enriched flour (white flour), palm oil, beet sugar, cinnamon
Pepperidge Farm Chessman Sweet & Simple Cookies
- Per cookie: 40 calories – 6 grams carb – 1.6 grams sugar
- Ingredients include white flour, butter, sugar, cornstarch….
Eggnog Crunch Cookies | by Fancypants Baking Co
- Per cookie: 50 calories – 7 grams carb – 0 fiber – 5 grams sugar – 1 gram protein
- Ingredients include white flour, cane sugar, brown sugar, butter, cage-free eggs
Holiday Gingerbread | by Voortman Bakery
- Made with real ginger – AND no artificial colors
- Per cookie: 26 calories – 4 grams carb – 0 fiber – 2 grams sugar
- Ingredients include white flour, sugar, vegetable oil, spices, colored with red radish extract
HATE IT!
Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe’s | by Trader Joe’s
- Per cookie: 140 calories – 17 grams carb – 12 grams sugar
- First three ingredients are sugar, white flour, oil.
LoftHouse Holiday Frosted Sugar Cookies
- Per cookie: 160 calories – 26 grams carbohydrate – 16 grams sugar
- Ingredients include sugar, white flour, margarine, eggs, corn starch, artificial colors like Red 3 & 40,Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 & 6, Yellow 5 & 6 Lakes, Blue 1 & 2, Blue 1 & 2.
Starbuck’s Frosted Snowman Cookie
- Per cookie: 390 calories – 15 grams saturated fat – 45 grams carbohydrate – 23 grams sugar
- Ingredients include white flour, butter, margarine, sugar, fructose, sugared egg yolks, egg whites, white confectionary coating, chocolate flavored confectionary coating….
Want more from Molly? Click here to sign up for Nutrition Bites, her weekly e-newsletter with links to her Get the Skinny TV segments here on WGNO, and her weekly column in NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune! And you can follow Molly on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram: @MollyKimballRD