As Girl Scouts around the nation start their annual cookie drive between now and early next year with new, healthier treats, customers will be asking if they still taste good.

The Scouts have taken the trans fats out of three of their most popular cookies: Thin Mints, Caramel deLites and Peanut Butter Patties. Two new cookies, the fudge-covered Thanks-A-Lot and reduced-fat Cartwheels, don’t have trans fat, either.

Kansas City Scouts, among the first in the country to take orders for the new cookies, are eager to roll them out. By the 2006 drive, all Girl Scout cookies will be free of the fat that scientists now tell us is more harmful to our hearts than saturated fat.