Yoink! Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl Line Pulled from Whole Foods
The supposedly all-natural cocktails turned out to be anything but-- and Whole Foods wasn't pleased. Whoops!
-Lucia Peters, BettyConfidential.com
Put down that cocktail! In a dramatic move yesterday, Whole Foods pulled Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl line of bottled cocktails from their shelves. The drinks claimed to be "all-natural," but apparently, um, weren't. The problem seems to have been the inclusion of a preservative, which, it turns out, didn't sit well with Whole Foods once they found out about it. Whoops.
Should we have seen this one coming? Perhaps. A nutritionist talking to the Huffington Post noted that there are no ingredients listed on the bottles; in retrospect, maybe this should have been an indication that things were not what they seemed. Then again, even without considering what a lack of ingredients may or may not imply, maybe this should have been a no-duh point anyway. Consider: Is it possible for margaritas and sangria-both of which usually contain perishable ingredients, Skinny or not-to live indefinitely on a shelf? Of course not. So even if the drinks consist of as few ingredients as possible, something's obviously got to go in that bottle to keep it shelf-friendly. Otherwise things could end up kind of messy after a while. Ick.
Frankel herself acknowledged this in a statement to Access Hollywood: "I'm not making wheatgrass here," she said. "If I could put an agave plant and some limes on a shelf I would. [The Skinnygirl Margarita] is as close to nature as possible, while still being a shelf stable product." Even so, she doesn't seem too worried about the shakeup; she sold the brand to Beam Global for $120 million in April, and she maintains that Skinnygirl is the fastest-growing spirits brand in the US. "We were bound to piss someone off and everyone loves to try to tear down a success," she said. "This is a non-event. I haven't lost even a wink of sleep." Well, $120 million would be a nice lullaby to fall asleep to, wouldn't it?
I'll admit that I don't always pay terribly close attention to what's going on in the health world, but I am sometimes struck by the hazy line between "diet" food and "healthy" food-because often, it seems that diet food isn't really all that healthy for you. I'm not sure where Skinnygirl falls on that spectrum; some people seem to love the line and others seem to hate it.
Tell us: What do you think readers? Are you pro- or anti-Skinnygirl? Why?
Lucia Peters is BettyConfidential's associate editor.
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