Dear Friends;
Today I am on a mission to expose one of the biggest ripoffs and scams known to summer. It is robbing children and adults alike of one of the purest joys in life--the joy of an ice cream cone.
Visit your local grocer and you are sure to find almost an entire aisle of ice cream-type products. But a big sign saying "Edible Oil Products" doesn't really sound appealing on a hot summer day.
The next time you buy "ice cream" check to see if the words "ice cream" appear on the packaging--chances are they don't. Even popular brand names--names you would shout out if I asked you to name what kind is in your freezer--are likely "Frozen Desserts." A trip to one local grocery store found only one brand (Chapmans) that is indeed ice cream. The rest are all Frozen Desserts (check the lower right hand side of the package.)
What's the difference you ask? Well, if you have ever had Real Whipped Cream on your hot chocolate or Mocha (like at Starbucks or Gingersnaps) you will know it is light and fluffy and tastes like heaven and melts discreetly into your beverage. However, if you visit a local chain restaurant or coffeeshop, you may receive Whipped Topping which is described as an "edible oil product" and floats on your drink like a dense island of nastiness and when it eventually does disolve it leaves a thick grease slick on top of your latte. SICK. (You may also recognize it as the stuff that you scrape off your ice cream cake and which does not disolve in the sink. Yucky.)
If you visit the Dairy Goodness website you can see a lovely write-up on Frozen Desserts vs Ice Cream (I learned about it myself in the Nutrition Action newsletter from the Center for Science in the Public Interest--the same people who busted the coronary-inducing bucket that is movie popcorn (but at least that tastes good).) An excerpt:
If it looks like ice cream, it must be ice cream, right? There was a time when that was true. But these days, you can’t be so sure. Many of the products for sale in the ice cream aisle at your grocery store are ‘frozen desserts’ that are often made with edible oil products and don’t contain the nutrients naturally found in milk. Read the Nutrition Facts table on the label: frozen desserts are made with oils like palm kernel or coconut oil, ice cream is made from 100% milk (including ingredients derived from milk, e.g. cream, skim milk powder, whey powder).
Most manufacturers have simply removed the words ‘ice cream’ from their packaging and replaced them with the term ‘frozen dessert’. So be sure to read your labels and look for the 100% Canadian milk symbol. And remember: If it doesn’t say ice cream on the package, it’s not ice cream.
In addition to tasting like garbage and leaving a slick on your tongue, the frozen desserts are also frothy and foamy and not rich or creamy tasting (hence the lack of cream). And as a note--the desserts are often the same or MORE expensive than real ice cream!
So, if you look in your freezer and find you having been scammed into frozen garbage instead of real ice cream, pick some up next time (or come by Sweetpea's for some delicious Alberta Made Foothills Ice Cream). When you taste the deliciousness that is real ice cream, your neurons will fire and your synapses will alight and you will experience the true, real joy that is sweet, cold ice cream on a hot summer day.
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