
Healthy, low-calorie ice cream pints dominate the frozen aisle at the grocery store, especially since the rise of the keto diet.

“We're eating a food like ice cream to increase the joy of the experience, the tastiness of the experience and also to be able to be much more conscientious and tuned into our bodies cues of like ‘That was satisfying, I don't need to eat more,” Pappa says. Ice cream is a hyper-palatable food, which means its specific combination of fat, sugar and carbohydrates makes it rewarding and harder to stop eating. Reframing the way we enjoy ice cream can help develop a healthy relationship with food, Pappa says. “Emotional eating” can be triggered by anxiety-inducing or difficult life events, stress, depression, dieting or even seasonal stressors. An American Psychological Association survey found 38% of adults overeat or eat unhealthy food because of stress. When fitting ice cream into a healthy diet, Pappa suggests asking yourself why you’re consuming ice cream in the first place. These groups should consult their doctor for condition-specific dietary guidelines. This can especially be a concern for those who have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or other health conditions where they might need to cut down on their sugar or dairy intake. And if you’re cracking open a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, the serving size (about ⅓ of the pint) can have between 30 and 40 grams of added sugar. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 36 grams of added sugar for men and 25 grams for women.


The nationally suggested recommendation is that Americans limit their intake of added sugars to less than 10% of their total daily calories. The key is moderation – how much, and when, we’re consuming the dessert. To that, Pappa says, “What would life be without ice cream?” Ice cream has a high sugar content, and as a dessert, many feel it doesn’t have a place in a healthy diet. Make your own: 3 ingredient homemade ice cream recipe Is ice cream bad for you? “It encompasses all the things that I love about it, including experience – it’s local, it’s nostalgic, it’s small-backed,” she says. Local ice cream shops often create their products from locally sourced ingredients, and eating local can limit your intake of highly processed foods and contribute to higher quality diet. Haagen-Dazs’ chocolate ice cream, for example, contains only cream, skim milk, cane sugar, egg yolks and cocoa.īut the best way to go, in Pappa’s opinion, is to choose a local ice cream company for your outdoor treats and take-home classics. That’s usually milk, cream, sugar and some kind of flavoring, she says. “To me, the healthiest ice cream is ice cream that really sticks to the original recipe.” “Ice cream is a very simple food and should be a simple food,” Pappa says.

The healthiest option money can buy is one with the fewest ingredients, says licensed dietitian nutritionist Abra Pappa. If you’re at the store, browsing through the frozen section, the first place you want to look for the healthiest ice cream is on the back label. Whether you’re in line at the ice cream stand or have the grocery freezer section door open, here’s what to know about health and ice cream, including non-dairy, low-calorie and frozen yogurt options. According to data from the International Dairy Foods Association, Americans eat roughly 20 pounds of ice cream every year. Ice cream is a staple of the summer, but it’s a part of the American dessert regimen all year. The days are getting longer, the air smells like sunscreen and bug spray and ice cream shops are back open for the season.
