The sunny days are finally here… at least in a large part of Europe. You want to refresh yourself and indulge in an ice cream… without neglecting your figure. But how much can we allow ourselves without feeling guilty? Three dietitians answer this question.
To vary the pleasures at the end of the meal, you can be tempted by an ice cream. Without forgetting, however, that this dessert remains sweet and rich in saturated fats, especially when it is a cream or an ice cream bar bought in a supermarket. To maintain a balanced diet, what quantity can we consume without seeing the numbers on the scale soar?
Interviewed by the Huffington Post, three American dietitians, Maggie Michalczyk, Tamar Samuels and Edwina Clark, answer this crucial question. The three experts are clear: eating ice cream in summer is not bad for your health.
How to choose the right ice cream?
If you can eat ice cream without fear, how do you choose it well? Supermarket shelves offer a plethora of products in the frozen sections. According to dietician Tamar Samuels, it is important to choose your ice cream by monitoring its composition. Fruit sorbets, for example, will naturally be less rich than ice creams.
For the expert, the secret is to read the labels carefully. “Stick to products with whole food ingredients you recognize, like sugar and vanilla.” she recommends. Because as with all industrial foods, limit processed products, and favor short ingredient lists with products that you know.
What are the rules to follow to avoid gaining weight?
Maggie Michalczyk recalls that ice cream is “a food high in calories, sugar and fat”. Some are so rich that a single serving alone covers all (or almost!) of the recommended sugar and fat intake for the day.
An important point to remember if you're thinking about ice cream in the evening… So it all depends on what you ate earlier in the day. The dietitian also explains that the important thing is to consume it “in moderation” and “as part of a healthy diet”.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
How much exactly can you eat every day?
How much can you eat without gaining weight? Her colleague Edwina Clark believes that “A scoop of ice cream every night as part of an otherwise healthy diet isn't likely to ruin your health.”.
The dietitian is even more precise. To better visualize what this represents, it is possible to allow yourself a “half cup” of ice cream every day, without fear, if you eat a balanced diet otherwise. Foodies will be delighted to learn that they can treat themselves to a little treat every evening, without risk to their health… and their figure!
Slide: How to make homemade ice cream and sorbet?
