Valeria Guzman
Professor
Montoya
English
102
30
April 2025
How Unhealthy Are Crumbl Cookies When
it Comes to the Effects of Sugar?
One Saturday afternoon, my little
sister had this strong craving for crumbl cookies. Since me and my family had
never gone to Crumbl before, my little sister and I decided that we should ask
our parents if we could go to Crumbl and pick some of their delicious cookies
up. They agreed, and on the way to Crumbl, I got curious and decided to google
how much sugar one Crumbl cookie contains because I assumed that it was maybe a
lot due to the cookie’s size. To my surprise, it was way more sugar than what I
imagined. After, we got to the Crumbl store, we went inside the store and
picked out the cookies from that week’s line up. When we got home, I refused to
consume a cookie because I was now aware of how much sugar one cookie from
Crumbl cookie contains, and not to also mention I was very aware of the
negative effects of high amounts of sugar can have on someone’s health. My
little sister on the other hand, enjoyed her Crumbl cookie. However, a few
hours later she was experiencing a sugar rush that within a few minutes turned
into a sugar crash. This experience that my little sister had, got me wondering
if high amounts of sugar from Crumbl cookies had any other negative health
effects.
With
over 200 flavors that they offer, their eye-catching designs, and their
tempting layers of frosting, there may exist a shocking truth when it comes to our
health and consuming Crumbl Cookies which contain high amounts of sugar, that
could make you think twice before indulging. Crumbl cookies may not be what
they seem to be and consuming them could cost you your health.
Crumbl cookies, famously known for their
200+ flavors and designs of different kinds of cookies, was originally founded
in Logan, Utha, United states,2017 according to Crumbl’s website. Crumbl has
now expanded to more than 800 locations worldwide, which has made them the
fastest-growing cookie company in the US. Despite their recent growth in popularity, there
has recently been some questioning whether they are good for us when it comes
to our health. Recently all of this questioning on whether they are good for
our health came from when they grew in popularity when they spiked in
popularity on social media, specifically TikTok. After coming across all of
these Crumbl cookie mukbang videos on my for you page who have over millions of
views on TikTok, and seeing other videos related to the effects of Crumbl
Cookies on our health when it comes to the effects of sugar, It was a shocking discovery
to what I came across.
Each Crumbl Cookie flavor that they
offer averages at about 700-800 calories per cookie. Which you could imagine
just how much sugar is in one of their cookies. According to Crumbl’s nutrition
facts website, their Brownie sundae cookie comes in at 1,130 calories with 76
grams of sugar. Moreover, a Crumbl cookie contains about four-and-a-half times
more calories than a Krispy Kreme donut, a Krispy Kreme donut comes in at 240
calories and 13g of sugar. Some of Crumbl’s top cookie flavours include the
Milk Chocolate Chip and their Blueberry Cheesecake cookie. Each of them
containing high amounts of sugar, their Milk chocolate Chip contains 47g of
sugar and their Cheesecake Blueberry cheesecake contains 74g. Crumbl’s Brownie sundae cookie contains the
CDC’s daily recommended amount of total sugars for an adult man. But just how
bad can Crumbl Cookies and their excess sugars be for our health?
Crumbl has an excessive amount of
sugar that doctors would call them “Diabetes in a box”. While it can generally
be okay to indulge in some Crumbl Cookies every once in a while, it can come
with health risks when it comes to the effect that sugar can have on our
health, that have been mentioned by doctors. Doctor Detwiler has stated that
“while the cookie can fit into ‘an occasional indulgence, regular consumption
of items with this much sugar, saturated fat, and calories could be detrimental
to overall health”. “Furthermore, the amount of sugar that Crumbl Cookie’s
contain can affect our health so much that they can actually be the root for
some of the health problems in the US. Dr Drew Ramsey highlighted that “Cookies
and ultra-processed foods like these are the root cause of the health and
obesity problem in American”, ‘if these cookie cookies were firearms, they
would be illegal’, Many people on social media have also branded the Crumbl
cookies ‘diabetes in a box.”
Now that we know just about how
much sugar is in a cookie from Crumbl, and how that could impact our overall
health is that it can cause us to develop a sugar addiction. A sugar addiction
is the intense craving for sugar, difficulty controlling the amount of sugar
that someone may consume, and is the difficulty that someone may have when
controlling their sugar intake. A sugar addiction, can be caused by being
repeatedly exposed to sugar making the brain feel rewarded when sugar is
consumed. In one of Ede’s book called “Change your Diet, Change your mind” she
has stated that “ sugar triggers the brain’s reward circuits to release
dopamine, a neurotransmitter that signals pleasure and motivates us to seek
more of the same”. Ede has also stated
that “ high-sugar foods such as Crumbl cookies “might promote sugar addiction,”
and that refined carbohydrates could be “addictive”. Have you ever wondered why
you were so happy after consuming a bunch of sugar? That would be because of
the dopamine that Ede talks about in her book, that dopamine that is released
after you consume sugar causes the feeling of happiness, which can also be
known as a “sugar high.” I remember this one specific time when I was sitting
at the dinner table and my whole family was seated eating dinner. After dinner,
my little sister pulls out the giant tub of ice cream out of the freezer and scoops
the most unnecessary giant scoops of ice cream onto a bowl. My mom warned her
that eating all of that sugar is not very good for her, but of course she
decided to discard what my mom had told her, and she proceeded to indulge in
her ice cream that she had just served herself. A few minutes after she had
finished eating her giant scoops of ice cream that she had served herself, her
mood changed really quickly, she seemed happier than what she originally was
before consuming all of that ice cream with high amounts of sugar in it. But
that dopamine that gets released after we consume sugar is basically what gets
us addicted to sugar, because it positively rises your mood, which then makes
you want to consume more of that because of how good it made you feel.
Additionally, the amount of sugar
from the Crumbl cookies themselves can also be so harmful for our health, that
it can actually give us more serious
health risk such as playing a role in the development of diabetes in us. Diabetes
is a disorder where it can cause dangerous high blood sugar levels. Dr.Dixit
explains that, “Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which your body has difficulty
responding to its own insulin production [insulin resistance]. To try to
overcome insulin resistance, your pancreas will produce more insulin, and when
it can no longer keep up, your blood glucose rises”. Consuming large amounts of
sugar overtime can lead to diabetes. Furthermore, due to the large amounts of
sugar that a single Crumbl Cookie contains, diabetes can be a present disease
in someone who is not in great health already over a shorter amount of time,
due to the high amounts of sugar.
The negative effects for sugar
consumption does not only apply to Crumbl’s Cookies, but to all sugary foods in
general. One more that I would like to highlight is metabolic diseases. A
metabolic disease is a condition that essentially disrupts our bodies’ regular
biochemical processes, which results in problems with how our bodies process
food for energy. In the peer reviewed source “sweets and other sugary foods—a
scoping review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023” the EFSA explains
that “Importantly, there is evidence for a positive relationship between intake
of sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of several chronic metabolic diseases”,
The EFSA panel concluded that available data do not allow the setting an upper
level of intake for added sugars. Based on the risk of developing chronic
metabolic diseases on dental caries risk, the EFSA panel considers that the
intake of added sugars should be as low as possible in the context of a nutritionally
adequate diet”.
Additionally, an example of a
product that all these negative effects would apply to is Red Bull. My older
sister has this friend, where she meet them at church. They are 27 years old
and are already paying the consequences of consuming too much sugar. Every
Sunday, my sister would come back talking about just how many Red Bulls her
friend had consumed during church service. Just recently, my sister came back
with some horrible news, her friend had informed her that they had developed type
1 Diabetes. They are a very healthy individual, and their family does not have
any history of Diabetes, so it was very strange to hear about this. But, due to
the amount of Red Bulls, which contain high amounts of sugar, I had an idea of
where his diagnosis could be coming from.
Crumbl cookie’s need to come up
with a lower sugar recipe so that people can enjoy their cookies in a safer
manner. It is definitely possible, because for example, instead of adding all
of those tons of sugars in their cookies, they can look into adding alternative
sugars into their cookies. Natural sugars, for example, they can maybe try
adding natural sugars like honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, stevia, or even
the sugars that already come in fruits. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, all
of these natural sugars can be a good alternative to sugar when you want to
sweeten something, but don’t want all of the negative effects for your health.
Which, I think would be a good idea for Crumbl cookies to look into, especially
now that we know that there are other forms of sweeteners that can still lead
to good tasting cookies.
Overall, while it can be considered “safe” to eat treats high in sugar every once in a while, people should still be careful with how much sugar is in the thing that they are consuming. And even though Crumb Cookie’s may look appetizing and tempting, after reading this article you may just think twice before indulging in one.
MLA works cited page
Dailymail.com, Sadie Whitelocks
For. “Doctors Sound Alarm over Insanely Popular Crumbl Cookies That Have 1,200
Kcals a Piece: ‘Diabetes in a Box.’” Daily Mail Online, Associated
Newspapers, 10 Oct. 2024,
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13938063/Doctors-alarm-unhealthy-Crumbl-cookies-new-flavor.html.
Hatty Willmoth is a Newsweek food
and nutrition reporter based in London, U.K. She has covered special diets.
“Crumbl Cookies ‘Might Promote Sugar Addiction,’ Nutritionist Warns.” Newsweek,
16 Sept. 2024,
www.newsweek.com/crumbl-cookies-promote-sugar-addiction-nutrition-health-1946735.
“Can You Get Diabetes from Eating
Too Much Sugar?” Hackensack Meridian Health, 14 Dec. 2021,
www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/healthu/2021/12/14/can-you-get-diabetes-from-eating-too-much-sugar.
“Are Crumbl Cookies Bad for You?” Are
Crumbl Cookies Bad For You? - Here Is Your Answer.,
www.isitbadforyou.com/questions/are-crumbl-cookies-bad-for-you. Accessed 30
Apr. 2025.
“Pros and Cons of Artificial
Sweeteners.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and
Research, 10 Jan. 2023,
www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/artificial-sweeteners/art-20046936.
Peer reviewed source:
Sweets and Other Sugary Foods – a
Scoping Review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023 | Food & Nutrition
Research,
foodandnutritionresearch.net/index.php/fnr/article/view/10488. Accessed 30 Apr.
2025.
Comments
Post a Comment