I scream! You scream! Everyone screams for ice cream! Everybody loves ice cream! With its delicious taste and various toppings, ice cream becomes one of the most favorites food of human being all over the planet.
Nobody will reject its sweet, delicate, and tasty indulgence from this tasteful pleasure. Besides its tasty flavor, the health benefits of ice cream are quite powerful too. Meanwhile, there are some ice cream variants that are quite healthier than regular ice cream because of its natural and healthy ingredient. We call that kind of ice cream: guilt-free ice cream or healthy ice cream.
What is A Guilt-Free Ice Cream?
The health benefits of guilt-free ice cream simply are originated from its main ingredients. In this case, a guilt-free ice cream can be made from yogurt, milk (animal based or vegan), fruits, and many more healthy ingredients. Why is it guilt-free? Because it relatively has lower calories than regular ice cream. So, you don’t need to worry about your diet while consuming this healthy indulgence.
Meanwhile, Becky Hand, a professional dietitian, gave a recommendation to check the nutrition label to ensure it will not ruin your diet. At least, a guilt-free ice cream should meet these guidelines as per 1/2 cup serving:
- 120 calories maximum
- 4g of total fat maximum
- 3g of saturated fat maximum (sherbet, sorbet, and low-fat ice cream usually pass it easily)
- 10mg of cholesterol maximum
- 15g of sugar maximum (approximately equals to 3 tablespoons of actual sugar)
But, you should remember not to consume it excessively. Even if it has a very low calorie, it will ruin your diet and your stomach. Especially if you eat a pint full of it at once. So, I warn you one more to check its nutritional facts and reasonable serving suggestion.
Guilt-Free Ice Cream Brand
Fortunately, there are many ice cream brand that claims to be the healthy and guilt-free ice cream with various style. For example, Halotop ice cream uses stevia as the sweetener that claims to be healthier than regular sucrose. Meanwhile, you can get the benefits of probiotics for your digestive system by consuming Yasso.
In addition, if you are a vegan you can try “So Delicious” as it only uses coconut, soy, almond, and cashew for the milk base of its ice cream. In this case, you’ are going to find flavors like Chocolate Brownie Almond, Green Tea, Cherry Amaretto, and Pomegranate Chip. Overall, they are very delicious and healthy if you consume it in a reasonable and not excessive portion.
Health Benefits of Guilt-Free Ice Cream
Furthermore, here we discover the health benefits of guilt-free ice cream especially for you. As we told you before, we divide its benefits from its origin and its base, so here we go!
1. Frozen Yogurt
A frozen yogurt can be an alternative for regular ice cream. It is made by freezing the yogurt using a technique similar to soft serve. In this case, a froyo is often containing an amount of live and active cultures (probiotics) just like Health Benefits of Yakult Probiotic Drink that is great for your digestive system health.
In addition, the frozen yogurt has lower calories and fat than regular ice cream.Meanwhile, you should check the National Yogurt Association (NYA) Live and Active Culture Seal to ensure its probiotics substance to gain the health benefits of guilt-free ice cream.
2. Gelato
A gelato has a much denser texture than regular ice cream. Because it has less air bubble due to its different processing method. Generally, the nutritional amount of gelato is not quite different than traditional ice cream. But, you can still gain the health benefit of guilt-free ice cream from its topping and mixture.
There are many gelato products that use fruits and matcha as the mixture. In this case, you can gain its health benefits base on the particular mixture of the gelato beside the nutrient you gain from the fresh milk itself.
3. Ice milk
Ice milk contains fewer calories than regular ice cream. In addition, it is made with lower-fat milk as it less creamy than traditional ice cream. Meanwhile, this is quite a guilt-free ice cream you can get with the nearest taste as regular ice cream.
How about its health benefit? As regular ice cream has more fat than calcium, the ice milk will be a good source of calcium from its low-fat milk base. Calcium is the important substance to ensure your bones growth and health.
4. Italian ice (also called Granita)
Granita is a mixture of juice (or any other liquid like coffee or tea), water, and sugar with the ratio of 4:1 between the liquid to sugar. Then, with the frequent stirring to the ice during the freezing process, it creates a flaky texture. Thus, it makes the granita almost fat free, with minimal additive and the lowest calories of all frozen desserts.
Meanwhile, granita inherits its health benefits from the liquid mixture. In this case, if you use coffee, you will gain all of the health benefits of coffee. On the other hand, if you use fruit juice mixture, apple juice, for example, you also can gain the health benefits of apple mango too. The minimal additive from the granita makes the health benefits of guilt-free ice cream become stronger than any other kind.
5. Sorbet,
Sorbet is the less flaky version of granita. With quite a same ingredients with granita, the sorbet has more solid texture and softer consistency. However, the health benefits of sorbet more or less the same in rate with granita as it uses minimal additive and fat-free.
6. Sherbet
The sherbet is more like sorbet with the creamy addition. It contains fruit juice with some milk, gelatin, or white egg to enrich and thicken it. As it uses milk and creamy addition, the health benefits from the fruit juice are less than sorbet or granita.
7. Soft-serve
Soft-serve is a soft ice cream with the double amount of air as regular ice cream. As a result, the ingredients are stretched and creates a lighter texture. Some peoples love the soft-serve ice cream more than regular ice cream as the perfect dessert after having a fancy dinner.
Fortunately, it has lower fat and calories that make it one of the guilt-free ice cream. But, always pay attention to its ingredients and don’t consume it excessively as it often contains additives and fillers. Be sure to choose a healthy topping and mixture to gain the health benefits of guilt-free ice cream.
Thus, the health benefits of guilt-free ice cream revealed just for you. Although it is healthier than regular ice cream, I warn you once more to do not consume it excessively. Despite it has less sugar than regular ice cream,  a pint full of it surely will ruin your diet.