Summer is Here: Everything You Need to Know About Ice Cream

Ice Cream in the Freezer: If your family shopping list includes popsicles, and your kitchen freezer is packed with these colorful cold treats just in case, your family might be in trouble. It's fine to indulge in a popsicle while on a trip, but it's not okay to bring them home and make them a regular part of your summer diet.

Ice Cream at the Mall: When you get there, you're really tempted to indulge in something sweet... but you don't want to feel like a sucker. So after the server fills your cone with colorful scoops, you remember to ask them to roll it in colorful candies and not to forget the chocolates and extra toppings. You should calm down. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream scoops are enough, the rest is really unnecessary.

Ice Cream at the Pool and Beach: It's unclear what the connection is between ice cream cones or popsicle sticks and heat and humidity, because ice cream isn't really cooling. On the contrary, it's liquid, sticky, and makes you thirsty. So, it's much more reasonable to buy a frozen popsicle. Unfortunately, it's less reasonable to think that the artificial colors there are good for us. That's why, ideally, it's better to bring a frozen water bottle from home, and if not, buying one popsicle is okay.

DIY Ice Cream: Want it both sweet and healthy? Make your own ice cream at home. Want your children to profit from it too? Let them sell it. There's money here and health promotion. Use coconut milk, cherries, mangoes, strawberries, peaches, melons, dates, real maple syrup (not maple-flavored), natural vanilla extract, lemon juice, and more. You know what, even if you make ice cream with less healthy ingredients, homemade ice cream is still better because it doesn't contain industrial ingredients.

Ingredients List: Industrial ice creams contain water, sugar, milk, or milk powder, or milk solids, hardened vegetable oil, glucose, maltodextrin, emulsifiers and stabilizers, preservatives, acidity regulators, modified starch, flavorings, and colorants. So, read the ingredient list and choose ice cream with the fewest words that you don't understand.

Hierarchy: Family ice creams come in three categories. Mainstream ice creams contain 50% air and are made from milk or milk powder. They contain palm or coconut oil and both natural or synthetic flavor extracts. In the premium category, the protein comes from eggs. The fat content in premium ice creams ranges between 8% - 12%, and the air content is less than 50%. The highest quality category is called super premium. In these ice creams, the air content is 20% and the fat content is at least 12%. All 100% of the ingredients in super premium ice cream must be natural, which means they contain fresh cream, fresh milk, egg yolks, stabilizers, and natural extracts.

Vegan Ice Cream: Sorbet brags about containing fruit and 0% fat. However, looking at the ingredient list shows that the fruit puree constitutes about 7%-40% of all ice cream ingredients. Besides the fruit, sorbet contains about 30% carbohydrates originating from glucose and dextrose syrup, all wrapped in stabilizers, emulsifiers, food acid, colorants, and flavorings. Because apparently, it takes a lot of industrial ingredients to compensate for the lack of fat. Therefore, it is better to buy healthy ice creams containing coconut cream, coconut water, agave syrup, and other natural ingredients.

Want to know more? Purchase the "Growing Healthy" lecture series by the naturopath Sarah Bar Asher at the Hidabroot Jewish Campus.

Sarah Bar Asher is a naturopath and lecturer on nutrition and the food industry.Barasher@zahav.net.il