Mint Cookie Blizzard has 1,000 calories

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- The Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard at Dairy Queen provides a blizzard of calories, officials of a U.S. non-profit group said.

Officials at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit health advocacy group in Washington, said the new ice cream dessert weighs more than a pound, has more than 1,000 calories, 31 teaspoons of sugars, and provides more than a day's saturated fat.

Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard is like drinking two Big Macs.

"If you were designing a product with the intent of promoting obesity and type-2 diabetes in girls, it would look exactly like the Thin Mint Blizzard," Jacobson said in a statement.

"A Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard is soft-serve mint and vanilla ice cream combined with Thin Mint cookies and topped with a creme-de-menthe flavored syrup made out of high-fructose corn syrup and containing artificial food dyes Yellow 5 and Green 3. Even a small size has the calories -- 540 -- and a little more saturated fat -- 12 grams -- than a Big Mac."