Please boycott Pepperidge Farm cookies.

I’ve created a Change.org petition asking consumers to boycott Pepperidge Farm cookies and you can sign it here by clicking on this link:

Boycott Pepperidge Farm

Pepperidge Farm cookies contain hydrogenated oil, one of the worst trans fats created by humankind for the express purpose of creating a longer shelf life for a food product. It has zero nutritional value, hardens arteries, and contributes to diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

Some thirty plus years ago, I was a cookie loving cookie monster. Yup, I consumed cookies the way a parched mouth craves water. Each day I’d come home from school and the first thing I’d do was head towards the kitchen, open up one of the cupboards, and pull out some chocolate Milano cookies. My mother, at the time, did not know better. She did not read the actual ingredients listed in those cookies but she knew that if it’s one thing her finicky son could not do without, it was Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies. I poured a tall glass of milk and dunked each Milano cookie, letting it sit in the milk for about ten to fifteen seconds. The combination of milk, chocolate and flour was heaven. I couldn’t get enough of it.

I believe I consumed, on average, 8 to 10 Milano chocolate cookies each day. I certainly could have consumed the entire bag of Milano cookies but did my best to save what I could for the following day. We went through so many Milano cookies that at one point my mother skipped buying Milano and instead purchased Chips Ahoy cookies. I didn’t mind Chips Ahoy. I dunked each cookie in milk and eagerly consumed it. But Milano cookies were special. I just liked how the cookie was designed and how it tasted. I knew next to nothing about nutrition (and could have cared less).

My cookie consumption would reach its apogee by the time I reached 8th grade. When I entered high school, I discovered I could enjoy the delicious food my mom prepared for the family and actually decrease my cookie consumption. But I never stopped loving Milano cookies. It was not until the late 1980’s when I began hearing about hydrogenated oil.

Hydrogenated oil is a trans fat, one of the worst kinds of fat you can consume. It elevates bad cholesterol (LDL) in your body and lowers your good cholesterol (HDL). Hydrogenated oil is the process of forcing hydrogen gas into oil at high pressure and temperature. Now why would you knowingly want to consume a product that has hydrogen gas in it? It’s akin to smoking cigarettes when you know that the smoke from cigarettes causes cancer. And with Milano cookies, it’s the hydrogenated oil that keeps the cookie “fresh” for long periods of time and enables you to eat it whenever you want.

It didn’t dawn on me that Milano cookies contained trans fat until the one day I closely read the ingredients of Milano cookies. And there it was: hydrogenated oil. Talk about shock and dismay.

I stopped eating Milano cookies. And to this day, I’ve never eaten another Milano cookie. I didn’t think much of it until recently when I had a hankering for store bought cookies. And I remembered how much I loved eating Milano cookies. I went to a supermarket and checked out a bag of Milano cookies. I reviewed the ingredients. And thirty + years later, Pepperidge Farm has made ZERO effort to remove hydrogenated oil from their cookie products.

It is the height of utter corporate irresponsibility to knowingly push food products that are dangerous to human health. Margaret Rudkin founded Pepperidge Farm in 1937 (according to Wikipedia). Her company was named for the Pepperidge tree, Nyssa sylvatica. Campbell Soup Company acquired her company in 1961.

Campbell’s Soup Company? Did you know? So now we have Campbell’s Soup Company peddling unhealthy cookies to the American consumer. This angers me because when you analyze who purchases Pepperidge Farm cookies, it’s not nutritionists and organic food consumers. It’s people who don’t know better. It’s parents who care more about providing something sweet to their children rather than taking the time to educate themselves about the health implications of consuming hydrogenated oil and trans fat.

In sum, please take a stand on the issue of hydrogenated oil and sign my petition. Each time someone signs the petition, an email is generated and sent to Mr. Harvey Golub, Chairman of the Board at Campbell’s Soup. I’m sure Mr. Golub could care less about hydrogenated oil in Pepperidge Farm cookies. But if sales plunge for the product he might suddenly take an interest and actually make the effort to push Pepperidge Farm to eliminate hydrogenated oil and other trans fats from their cookies. When that miraculous day arrives, I will jump up and down and seriously consider consuming Pepperidge Farm cookies again, recalling the lost days of my innocent youth.

Please sign my petition: Boycott Pepperidge Farm

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