Ice cream has been tempting folks like you and I since it’s discovery in the 1600′s. In 1843 NancyJohnson developed the first hand-crank ice cream maker and received a patent for it. She sold her rights to William Young for just $200 (which must have been a lot of money back then). He had the courtesy to name it the “Johnson Patent Ice-Cream Freezer.” Then in 1851 a fellow by the name of Jacob Fussell used mass production to get it in the hands of more people. By 1899 there were 5 million gallons of ice cream being produced in the United States alone! With the advances that were made in electricity in homes and therefore refrigeration, the production of ice cream in the U.S. increased from 5 million gallons a year in 1899 to 150 million gallons a year in 1919. The demand for ice cream has most definately increased. Statistics report that in 2006 there were 1.55 billiongallons of ice cream produced in the United States alone and that the average American consumes 24.5 quarts a year. Wow. Yet every time you turn around the press is telling us that there is an obesity epidemic in America……..Hmmm, wonder why?
I did some research and got the “scoop” (pardon the pun, I couldn’t resist) on some of America’s favorite brands of ice cream. To make it fair since not all companies make the exact same variations of flavors, I picked plain chocolate ice cream with nothing else in it (no nuts, marshmallows, fruit, chocolate chips, brownie pieces, etc.) and compared the differences between the brands. I found myself sitting at the computer with my jaw in my lap more often that not. Brace yourself, then check it out:
Brand Calories Fat Sat. Fat Carbs Protein
Hagen Dazs 270 18 11 22 5
Baskin Robbins 260 14 9 33 5
Ben & Jerry’s 260 16 11 25 4
Dove 300 18 11 31 4
Cold Stone
Like It 390 24 15 39 6
Love It 649 40 25 65 11
Gotta Have It 910 56 35 92 16
Dreyers 150 8 4.5 17 3
Did you see the “Gotta Have It” size from Cold Stone? And that is just the ice cream, nothing added in. I know what you’re thinking- No worries Laura, I can go work out to make up for it, right? You sure can! Let’s say you decided to do some crunches to work it off, you only have to do 1,329. Or how about push-ups? Drop and give me 883. Still sound like a fair trade?
I’m not saying that ice cream is taboo and that you should never eat it. I am saying that moderation is key and that when you do chose to eat it, be smart about it! Start by checking nutrition labels and choosing a brand with more reasonable numbers, like the Dreyer’s, have one serving and then get out there and be active!
