So, I've read a few articles now that say eating icecream each day can keep help weight loss. I love icecream so I've been having Lowfat icecream (120 cals, 3g fat per serving) as a snack everyday. I know I'm probably going well over the serving size but is icecream going to make me put on weight or is it actually a new health food?

I'm not certain, but I think that it may have to do with the calcium content in the icecream, as calcium has been shown in studies to help you to shed excess pounds. Anyone else know anything about this?

~Colleen

Correct. It's not ice cream per se, it's the calcium that does a body good. So, rysta, the ice cream isn't going to put weight on you, BUT if you consume too many calories for the weight you want to maintain, you will gain weight.

Enjoy your ice cream while ensuring you consume a healthy mix of protein, carbs, fat, etc.

How does Calcium actually help shed weight?

rsysta,

Ice cream will NEVER rise to the level of a healthy food.
If you are going to eat it you MUST measure portions carefully...that serving size listed is a silly HALF-CUP...what an infant in a cradle might need to get his fill, almost.
"Low-Fat" probably STILL means more than 50% fat and the lower the fat gets the higher the sugar gets. If they start substituting sugar alcohols for sugar, then you get the horrible effect of instant diahrrhea every time you eat it.

If you want ice dcream, no matter what kind, the only way to do it wisely is to WEIGH each serving, compare it to the weight per serving on the box (not cupfuls but grams) and record the calories.

"I know I'm going over the serving size" has ruined many a diet plan.:wave:

Lenin,

Just out of curiousity, why would you recommend weighing the serving of ice cream instead of measuring it into a measuring cup? Wouldn't 1/2 cup measured out yield the same amount of calories as whatever the number of grams yields? (and yes, i realize it may vary by like 10 or 20 depending if you got an extra little brownie piece or whatever, but you know what i mean.) What's wrong with portioning it out by measuring it?

Thanks!

Isn't it because icecream is expanded because it's frozen??

but you'd figure that when they say "one serving is 1/2 cup," they mean "1/2 cup frozen, packed in and leveled off," right??? anybody got any input?

Joni, It's just too hard to get that 1/2 cup measurement right. Unless it's put into a sturdy 4 ounce ontainer and squeezed flat and levelled, you can miss by a country mile...ESPECIALLY if you guesstimatine that half cup into a 16 ounce bowl.
Volume is a rotten way to measure certain foods. I've even seen something as stupid as "2 cups of Romaine lettuce"...say what???????

A scale doesn't lie; our eyeballs do.

Hey what about frozen yogurt? Would that be any better to snack on besides sugary icecream??

It really depends on what you're aiming for. Frozen yogurt is lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than ice cream. Calories look to be the same. Seems there's more fiber in frozen yogurt (2 grams as opposed to 0 in ice cream). Carbs look to be the same. Both would probably constitute a "dairy serving," but both are sugary...

Unless you start checking out sugar free, fat free, carb free. Then you will see lots of differences.

You can plug in all these things on the USDA website and see the nutritional values for everything under the sun.

Hey what about frozen yogurt? Would that be any better to snack on besides sugary icecream??

Not really. Frozen yoghurt is pretty high calorie even if lower in fat than ice cream...but as steno says, there are all kinds of lower-cal variants.
THe further you get from real ice cream, the worse and worse the taste experience gets. I guess the ultimate would be a flash-frozen mix of coloring, water and LOTS of air, sweetened with nutrasweet or sucralose, fake-fatted with Olestra and held together with the soluble gums like guar or xanthan...
I've seen some concoctions approaching this culinary nightmare :dizzy: :dizzy:.

For a while when I was low-carbbing, I was into the varieties of "no sugar added" ice creams...the bulk of sweetness and texture came from the sugar alcohols like sorbitol and MALTITOL (for anything chocolate.) The Maltitol concoctions were deliciouus but caused a quick headache and stomach cramps so it was safest to eat dessert while sitting on the throne.:blob_fire

I didn't think there was any calcium in ice cream. I know in frozen yogurt you can get 20% calcium in a serving. But ice cream, I don't see how it can be healthy unless you make it yourself and well.. you'd have to work on that.. but ice cream has so much sugar, fat, calories, and absolutely NO nutritional value so I don't know where people get these ideas lol.

Not really. Frozen yoghurt is pretty high calorie even if lower in fat than ice cream...but as steno says, there are all kinds of lower-cal variants.
THe further you get from real ice cream, the worse and worse the taste experience gets. I guess the ultimate would be a flash-frozen mix of coloring, water and LOTS of air, sweetened with nutrasweet or sucralose, fake-fatted with Olestra and held together with the soluble gums like guar or xanthan...
I've seen some concoctions approaching this culinary nightmare :dizzy: :dizzy:.

For a while when I was low-carbbing, I was into the varieties of "no sugar added" ice creams...the bulk of sweetness and texture came from the sugar alcohols like sorbitol and MALTITOL (for anything chocolate.) The Maltitol concoctions were deliciouus but caused a quick headache and stomach cramps so it was safest to eat dessert while sitting on the throne.:blob_fire


acually omg I had this serbert (sp) and it was made with mangos (first ingrediant!!) water and some type of sugar (not artificial eww) and wow it had such a better flavor than any ice cream it was rich and real, and HEALTHY in a sense lol. It had a good source of vitamin A. And you can also make your own frozen treat...