Let them eat cake (and Ice-cream too)

I'm back from a busy weekend of cake, more cake and ice cream.

I came out of this weekend with 2 new pieces of knowledge:

1. I am in complete denial that my little girl could already be 1 year old,
   
2. I gained some really cool knowledge about ice cream that I want to share with you.

Ice cream is a perfect of example of my theory that we should only ever eat quality food. If we demand quality great-tasting food, I beleive that ultimately this food will not only taste better, but also be better for us (AND, since there is way less quality food out there then there is crappy food-like products, we end up eating less - which is a good thing).

When it comes to ice cream, I beleive that Haagen Dazs is pretty much the cream of the crop. In the ice cream world Haagan Dazs is the premium brand. It tastes great, but you also pay a lot of money for it.

In fact, it is so expensive that on Friday, when I was out buying ice cream for Brier's first birthday party, I by-passed the Haagen Dazs and went right for the less expensive stuff.

Then, I got curious.

I read the ingredients on the less expensive stuff...this was what was in the vanilla flavor:

Milk Ingredients, Modified Milk Ingredients, Sugar, Glucose, Mono and Diglycerides, Locust Bean Gum, Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Natural and Artificial Flavours.

Now to compare, this is what is in the vanilla flavor from Haagen Dazs:

Cream, Skim Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolks, Natural Vanilla.

I'm sure you can spot the differences.

• 11 ingredients versus 5
• Ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen versus some things that don't even sound like food.
• Cream as the first ingredient in ice-cream, versus milk ingredients
  

So it becomes apparent pretty quickly that the premium ice-cream has food ingredients, while the cheaper ice-cream as food-like ingredients.

But, what about Calories?

Well, the Haagan Dazs KILLS the cheaper ice cream, providing 270 Calories versus 120 Calories per half cup. So if you are watching what you eat and trying to lose weight, this is where it gets interesting.

After all, we all know that a tablespoon full of the good stuff is way more satisfying then an entire bowl of the cheap stuff..but why is that?

Well, The next time you buy ice-cream, look at how it is sold..Ice-cream is not sold by weight, it is sold by volume. So you will buy 2 quarts of ice-cream, not 2 pounds of ice-cream.

And herein lies the mystery of premium quality ice-cream.

The small 500 ml container of Haagen Dazs weighs almost as much as a entire quart of one of the cheaper products.

Haagen Dazs ice-cream is very calorie dense because it contains much less air than the cheaper brands, which is why it does not need all of the extra stabilizers that the cheaper ice-cream contains (Mono and Diglycerides, Locust Bean Gum, Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan).

The cheaper brands try to get as much air into their ice-cream as possible so that they can fill a big container with less product, ultimately saving money.

So by sticking to your guns and only eating the premium stuff, you end up eating a lot less additives, you get a better tasting product, made from real food ingredients and you get roughly the same calories PER GRAM, with a whole lot more satisfaction.

Demand quality in the foods you eat, and you will end up eating a lot more food and a lot less food-like products. You will also end up eating less often, so even if the quality stuff has more calories, it should all even out in the end.

BP

PS- If you don't think you can lose weight while still enjoying cake and ice-cream at summer birthday parties then you need to check out Eat Stop Eat.