Oatmeal/raisin/walnut cookies. Any healthier than the others?

Question

Good as many cookies taste, I realize that people (especially adults) should not be eating them at all. I have personally fought off the temptation to do so on all but one or two occasions each year, when I simply give in and try to go for one of the "less bad" ones. I understand that fig bars, ginger snaps, vanilla wafers, and graham crackers are "less bad"--but what about oatmeal/raisin/walnut? We know all three of those ingredients are healthy, but do the other ingredients used to make these cookies doom the good ingredients sufficiently to make this particular cookie just as unhealthy as nearly all the others? (Somehow I hope for an answer that gives these cookies a "pass" because I would love to be able to have them once in a great while, but will absolutely not do so at the expense of health).

Answer 1

There is no justifiable way to pretend that cookies are healthy because of their ingredients.  You may get enough protein to be satisfied with a cookie with nuts or you may get tiny nutritional benefits from a cookie with fruit, but when you could just eat raisins or walnuts and pass on the actual confection, there's no way to say that the cookie is healthy.  Since cookies are usually made with loads of butter or margarine, they're going to have more of a negative effect on your body than a positive no matter how many raisins and walnuts are present.

However, there is also no reason to never eat another cookie again for the rest of your life just because it isn't healthy.  You just have to learn to only eat them occasionally and in moderation.