A "small" ice cream at a Ben and Jerry's scoop shop has more calories than you think. And many flavors have nearly a day's worth of saturated fat and added sugar.
Thanks to their fruit or yogurt, these supermarket frozen treats have a fraction—or none—of the saturated fat of full-fat ice cream. And their built-in portions (bars, bite-size pieces, or pockets) keep a lid on the calories and added sugar. Enjoy!
It’s not always clear if ice creams are getting better for us...or just better at marketing. Should you go for a keto, plant-based, or protein-packed pint? Or pick one that adds olive oil, fruit, nuts, or fiber? Rule No. 1: Don’t confuse ice cream with health food. That said, you can scoop up a fabulous frozen treat without heading into Häagen-Dazs territory. Read on.
Any frozen dessert that comes on a stick, in a cone, or individually wrapped has one huge edge over any tub of ice cream, sorbet, or frozen yogurt: it’s crystal clear what one serving is.
Just in time for summer, here’s a look at healthier single-serving frozen desserts...and the brands our taste testers loved.
Supermarket sales of ice cream shot up this spring as shoppers reached for comfort during the coronavirus pandemic. (Of course, pausing dine-in service also put restaurant sales of frozen desserts on ice.)
Clearly, ice cream has held onto its comfort food image. Yet food companies have been busy giving it a makeover.
Whether it’s less sugar, more protein, oat milk, avocado, or extra cream for your keto diet, brands are churning out ice creams that sound better for you. Which are? How’s the taste? Read on.
What makes your product stand out? Surely, your marketing department can think of something. You could add veggies, almond butter, probiotics, or protein...or take away something like grain or gluten. So what if it doesn’t actually make the food much healthier, as long as you make the sale? Thanks to the hype, these items look healthier than they are.
“Creative cookie dough concoctions feature huge gobs of dough at their core,” gushed the Ben & Jerry’s press release.
Yesss! Instead of rooting around for dough chunks in that tub of regular Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, “Dough Heads” can now just dig into the core. What a breakthrough!
So what if ⅔ cup (the serving that labels must use starting in January) of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Core has 380 calories, 13 grams of saturated fat, and 6½ teaspoons of added sugar? And so what if a pint has 1,140 calories, 38 grams of sat fat, and 20 teaspoons of added sugar? Just think of it as an entire Sara Lee All Butter Pound Cake—a perfect snack!
"Magnum Tubs offer a new, multisensory way to enjoy Magnum Ice Cream that is unlike anything available in the category today," said Unilever (Magnum's parent company) in a January press release.
"The sides of the Magnum Tub are encased in a shell of chocolate, which preserves the iconic chocolate crack that ice cream lovers hear upon biting into a Magnum Ice Cream bar."
Translation: You experience the excitement of squeezing the container to crack the chocolate casing before digging in.
