I just heard about the WhoNu brand of cookies, claiming to be “nutrition rich” compared to the other leading brands. Yes, they actually use the words “nutrition rich” in their marketing!

whoNu cookies marketing logo

So, I immediately thought okay, nutritious cookies must mean whole grains like oatmeal and lower sugar content, right? So I googled, and found their web site. Oh Lord, it’s virtually the same crappy highly processed cookie, but with a multi-vitamin and a little fiber thrown in for good measure.

Are WhoNu Cookies Nutritious?

Calories, sugar, & fat are all the same as the other “brands” they are comparing themselves to! What kind of a scam are they running here? They market this product to be “nutritious” but they are far Far FAR away from anything nutritious! Ugh. How are they allowed to get away with this?

That’s WhuNu’s nutritional info on the left, and the Oreos brand on the right.

whoNu chocolate cookies nutritional datacomparing whoNu cookies to oreo cookie nutritional data

Quote from their About Us page:

How come tasty treats are nothing but empty calories? Why can’t they be filled with healthy nutrition and still taste yummy? That’s what the people at Suncore Products wondered.

Thus, a new challenge was born – to create a delicious, nutritious snack moms and dads can give their kids, without an ounce of guilt.

Processed sugary foods like this are still “empty calories” no matter how you try to package them. What is the difference between their cookie and a original Oreo taken with a multi-vitamin? Nothing! You are better off eating the original version (bought on sale) and save yourself the marketing hype and extra markup price.

Parents should feel VERY guilty feeding this crap to their children! And it’s this kind of marketing that is making us fat because unfortunately parents are believing the hype without actually checking the facts or ingredients!

Ingredients?? Where are they Hiding the WhoNu Cookie ingredients?

Did anyone else notice that they are not listing any ingredient data on their web site!? If they are so proud of their product, then why hide any details? Sneaky sneaky!

So, I did some googling, and found a few other pissed off people offering screen shots of cookie packages.

Thanks to Hippie Health Nut for her screen shot!

Here are the ingredients for the WhoNu chocolate (oreo-like) cookies:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oils (Canola, Palm, Palm Kernel Oil, Soybean Oil And Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed And Coconut Oil), Cocoa, Dextrose, Polydextrose, Yellow Corn Flour, Corn Syrup, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Monoglycerides, Vanilla Extract.

Vitamins & Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin C (Asorbic Acid), Iron Orthophosphate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Oxide, Manganese Gluconate, Iodine, Chromium Chloride, Vitamin E (Tocopherol Acetate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), Biotin, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid), Vitamin D3, Vitamin K (Phytonadione), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Mononitrate), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid.

and here are the ingredients from Oreo’s web site (ha! They didn’t try to hide their data!)

Sugar, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), High Oleic Canola Oil And/or Palm Oil And/or Canola Oil, And/or Soybean Oil, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Cornstarch, Leavening (Baking Soda And/or Calcium Phosphate), Salt, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Vanillin – An Artificial Flavor, Chocolate.

Not much different, eh? White flour, tons and tons of sugar, unhealthy oils, artificial flavors, and lots of GMO corn & soy. Actually, it’s funny that the WhoNu people kind of sneak in a few more sugary sources, like dextrose, perhaps to confuse & fool parents into thinking their ingredients are better.

Sad Promotion on So Many Mommy Blogs

While googling for WhoNu ingredients, I was shocked and saddened to see so many “mommy” bloggers are promoting these cookies. Google “WhoNu cookie mommy” and you’ll find pages of “give aways” from supposedly reputable mommy bloggers. Very sad.

Yes, I understand that children need a treat once in awhile, heck, adults need treats too! But we MUST learn the difference between a healthy and unhealthy treat, and WhoNu is trying to blur the lines way too much!

Stay far away from WhoNu cookies! Don’t reward profits to a company that is trying to mislead the public with their damaging exaggerated marketing ploys!