I know I’m not the only one who has had a love affair with ice cream most of my life. The creamy, cold dessert that comes in endless variations of scrumptious flavours is a staple ‘treat’ for many of us. Sadly though, ice cream is not what it used to be. Just like so many other foods which have been completely ruined by mass commercialism and processing…
Ice cream went from nutritious to nasty
From this…
| Traditional Ice Cream |
| Pastured Eggs Raw Cream Raw Sugar Real Vanilla Bean or Fruit to flavour |
To this…
| Modern Commercial Ice Cream | |
| Propylene glycol Ethyl acetate Yellow dye #5 Hydrogenated oils High fructose corn syrup Dry milk solids Caroxymethyl cellulose Butyraldehyde Amyl acetate Diethyl glycol Aldehyde C-17 Piperonal Potassium sorbate |
Mono and diglicerides Disodium phosphate Ethyl Acetate Benzyl acetate Mono stearate Propylene glycol Sodium benzoate Polysorbate 80 Modified corn starch Soy lecithin Pasteurised Milk Dextrose, Sucrose Air — to double the volume and profits. |
What are all those things in the commercial ice cream?
Really, I couldn’t be bothered to look them all up to find out. I don’t recognise them as foods, so that is enough to deter me. But to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with here:
– Diethyl glycol, a cheap chemical used instead of eggs — also used in anti-freeze and paint removers
– Aldehyde C-17, a flavoring for cherry ice cream — an inflammable liquid used in dyes, plastics, and rubber
– Piperonal, used as flavouring in place of vanilla — a lice killer
– Ethyl Acetate, a pineapple flavor — a component of leather and textile cleaner, with vapors has been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage.
What about healthy or natural commercial ice creams?
There are still some wonderful ice cream makers out there, who whip up batches of creamy goodness with nothing but real food: milk, eggs, cream, sugar and fruit. Ben & Jerry even go so far as to source their milk from well-treated cows, and leave their mint ice cream white instead of adding fake green colouring. If you know what all the ingredients are on the ice cream tub, that is surely a Better Bad Choice.
However, the milk will always still be pasteurised, and if you know enough about pasteurised milk, you’ll still want to steer clear as much as possible.
As more people are avoiding milk products, coconut ice cream is now en vogue, and could be a good alternative. Again, just keep in mind that mass production of products usually requires stabilisers, preservatives, and other strange things like soy lecithin. Read the ingredients list!
2 ingredient homemade blueberry ice cream.
No ice cream maker needed!
Homemade Ice Cream
For best quality and least confusion, homemade is best. In your kitchen, you know exactly what is going into your ice cream, and therefore what is going into your body. And that’s the way we like it!
Ice Cream Makers
These appliances are very cheap to purchase, and allow you to make your own traditional ice cream in whatever variation you like. You can use raw milk/cream or coconut milk/cream, depending on what works best for your body and tastes. We recently got one at a thrift shop and have compiled some awesome paleo ice cream recipes on our Pinterest snacks and desserts board. Most of those are dairy free, but if you have access to raw organic cream from pastured-cows, use these traditional ice cream recipes.
Frozen Fruit Ice Cream
If you don’t want to bother with an ice cream machine, but would like to have a delicious homemade version in about 5 minutes, start making your own frozen fruit ice cream. It’s so easy and delicious, you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it before!
Frozen Fruit Ice Cream Recipes
There are only two simple steps:
1/ Freeze peeled bananas and any other desired fruits, such as berries, peaches, cherries.
2/ Whiz up the frozen fruit in your food processor, Thermomix, Vitamix, or Turbochef.
That’s it! Eat it right away while it’s cold and ice-creamy. You can also freeze it for awhile too, to experiment with the texture. Add other real food ingredients to make fun flavours.
Here are a couple of our favourite basic ‘ice creams’, with some optional flavour tweaks.
Amounts are for 1 serving. Easily double or triple for the whole family.
Chocolate Ice Cream
1 frozen banana
1 tbsp raw cacao (or cocoa if that’s all you have)
Optional additions:
1/4 avocado
honey to sweeten further
1 tsp shredded coconut
2 Ingredient Chocolate Ice Cream.
Sooo good.
Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
1 frozen banana
1 tsp raw cacao nibs (or chopped raw chocolate)
Optional additions:
1/2 tsp peppermint extract (for mint choc chip)
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tsp chia gel (soaked chia seeds)
1 tsp shredded coconut
Choc chip chia ice cream whizzed up in my Turbochef in a couple minutes.
Banana Berry Ice Cream
1 frozen banana
1 large handful frozen berries (any kind)
Optional additions:
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp shredded coconut
Frozen banana and blueberries in a food processor = ice cream!
Here’s one with frozen veggies…
Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
2 cups frozen cooked pumpkin (freeze your leftovers!)
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (or 1 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger)
Superfood Ice Cream
Check out this amazing recipe I came up with – a cold and creamy treat I call Probiotic & Essential Fatty Acid Superfood Ice Cream!
References:
Natural News.com: http://www.naturalnews.com/023849_ice_cream_chemicals_health.html#
We all scream for ice cream! Have you transitioned from store-bought stuff to homemade ice cream?
5-Minute Ice Cream Recipes…Because Look What’s in The Store-Bought Stuff – January 2014
