Food Study Fridays: #3 - Ice Cream

As I write this issue of Food Study Friday, it's a sunny summer day.

Like most people, this time of year has my family hankering for sweet cold treats--especially ice cream. (Truth be told, my family and I love our ice cream all year long.)

So awhile ago, I wondered what exactly was in the ice cream we so regularly enjoyed. Aside from the obvious dairy cream and sugar, I mean.

What I found really surprised me. Such as the fact that most brands of ice cream don't actually contain "cream".

But for this blog article, I wanted to give good old ice cream the benefit of the doubt. So here's the brand of ice cream I've chosen to analyze in this issue of Food Study Friday:

I chose this brand because it seems to be the one ice cream in the grocer's freezer that most strongly proclaims itself to be made naturally. And, as you can see, the brand strongly indicates that the product is made with "Real Dairy".

Also on the front label is this notice:

So this company claims "Our belief in NOTHING ARTIFICIAL". Okay then, let's see. First, let's have a look at the nutrition facts label (NFL):

As we would expect from ice cream, there are quite a few calories (140 calories) for the small servicing size of just a 1/2 cup--which is about one small scoop. Also, we can see that there is a good amount of sweetener per serving, as well as a little trans fat.

Okay, no surprises there. Let's move on to the ingredients list:

The picure I took of the ingredients list may be a little fuzzy, so let me give you the full listing below:

• fresh cream
• modified milk ingredients
• sugar
• glucose
• evaporated skim milk
• egg yolks
• guar gum *
• carob bean gum *
• cellulose gum *
• carrageenan *
• natural flavor
• ground vanilla beans
• colour 

And they say that all the ingredients with a * beside them are "sourced from plants" and that this product "may contain peanuts and tree nuts".

So what's suspicous here? Well for starters, just because something is "sourced from plants" doesn't mean it's contained within the product in the form and function to which nature intended. Lots of things are sourced from plants, but turned into all sorts of unrecognizable products that in no way resemble the plant(s) they originated from.

For example: Carrageenan is made from a certain type of red algae. It is processed in order to be used by the food industry to thicken and gel their products. During processing, some free glutamate is created within it. That means that carrageenan can be classified as excitotoxic.

Same goes for natural flavour. As I pointed out in the last Food Study Friday post (#2 on Whey Protein Powder), you can't buy a bottle of "natural flavor" at the store. And if it just happened serendipitously when the food manufacturer mixes the other ingredients together, then they wouldn't need to list it.

So, you have to assume that "natural flavour" is in fact an artificial ingredient. And so is the last item on this product's ingredient list: "colour".

I guess the ground vanilla bean didn't give this product enough vanilla flavor and color on its own. But I have to wonder:

Couldn't the food manufacturer just add pure vanilla extract instead?

I mean, if they really stand for "Our belief in NOTHING ARTIFICIAL" as they claim on the front of this product, then that would be the logical--and ethical--thing to do.

So the moral of the story is this:

Don't be fooled by the claims made on the front of a food label. Flip the product around and read the back--especially the ingredients list. It will give you a much clearer picture of just what is in the product. Not to mention what the company truly stands for.

In the meantime, if you're still hankering for sweet cold treats, here are 10 quick and easy recipes, all of which are good for you. Enjoy!