I tried… keto ice cream
Why keto ice cream?
Put another way, why not regular ice cream? So here’s the thing, we talk about how difficult it is to follow a diet and cut out the foods we love. If you have a sweet tooth this is especially more difficult since you crave sugar which is the big bad when it comes to health. Irrespective of the sweet tooth, I think we all love ice cream, and having ice cream as a dessert after a meal just completes the meals at times. However, if you’re trying to be healthy, one option is to not have ice cream at all or just keep it for your cheat days where you go all in. I don’t like this approach of having a separate day for things you love and restricting yourself on a regular day. Does this mean you just have ice cream daily? No. Here’s where we take advantage of the options available to us and pick something which is good for you from a daily consumption standpoint and won’t throw you off your fitness or health goals. For ice cream, here’s where the “keto” ice creams come into the picture.
Are you asking me to not enjoy ice cream?
No, I indulge in a Talenti once in a while, which if you’ve not tried, I highly recommend the mango one. But what I am trying to say is there is a way to enjoy ice cream more often without wreaking havoc on your health.
I am not keto, why do I go for a keto option?
The keto diet may not be the choice for you(like me) but that doesn’t mean you don’t take advantage of its perks. I am a firm believer in picking good things from different diets to create a diet that you love and can stick to.
Do these taste different from regular ice cream?
Not notably for the good ones.
What are my options?
Due to the whole “keto” hype phase, a good thing that happened was many companies saw it as an opportunity that led to the development of many keto-friendly products. Now if all these products are good for you or not is an argument for another day, but it’s nice to have options. Coming back to ice-creams, a majority of the keto ones rather than going for sugar are based majorly on sugar alcohols which are skipped by your body when it comes to digestion hence no contribution as to your carb intake or blood sugar. Still, these do taste sweet or at least trick your mind into thinking so. If these sound too good to be true read more here. These are way better for you as compared to the regular sugar-based ice cream which if you look at the sugar content has a scary amount of sugar and is more suited for a once in a while indulgence. Talking about flavors most of the brands I’ll go over, do a decent job at having a variety of flavor options. So let’s look at what to expect when it comes to keto ice-creams.
Enlightened is one of the most popular brands when it comes to keto ice-creams. They do a great job when it comes to flavors, they’ve everything from chocolate to red velvet. I tried a bunch of these and the ‘cookie dough’ options were my favorite, if you’re a chocolate lover you can’t go wrong with these. Other flavors also taste great, the glazed donut was a miss for me but I guess that’s just me. With this, you won't miss the regular ice cream though which is a huge plus.
Rebel is another great alternative with plenty of flavor options. A plus over enlightened is that they also have fruit-based options if you're not much of a chocolate person. I tried a bunch of these and had no complaints with either, on the contrary, some flavors like "Banana Peanut Butter Chip" just blew me away with how good they were. You'll not miss regular ice cream with this.
Another great option is Halo top, they also have a healthy flavor assortment and I prefer their flavor options over the others. They market them themselves almost as a ‘protein’ ice cream because most of their options do have a higher protein content than others. You’re not usually looking at ice cream as your protein source but this is nice to have. While I have no complaints in the taste and flavor aspect, since Halo top is a “whipped” ice cream, I did find it to be a little less satiating and left me thinking that it was gone too soon.
So the above options are great but if you check out the flavor options you’ll notice most of them are dairy-based which is fine unless you’re lactose intolerant. After a short hunt, I came across “So delicious” which is a dairy-free option that is ideal for vegan or dairy-free folks. They swap out milk with coconut milk, which if you’ve read my post on milk, you know is the best option for ice cream just because of the creamy texture it brings to the table. So texture wise this was great however from a taste perspective, this didn’t taste bad but it couldn’t match some of the others like Enlightened in my opinion. However, another great reason to pick this would be the ingredients, while others do a good job when it comes to ingredients but “so delicious” takes it to the next level, so if you’re extra cautious about what goes in your body, this is the way to go.
“Light” ice cream
I always like to throw in something at the end which doesn’t necessarily fit in but is worth mentioning. Here “light” ice cream is not a brand but a different type of ice cream which is not keto. Almost every brand mentioned here has a “light” variant too. Light ice-creams are a lighter version of regular ice cream which means these have “less” sugar and “less” calories as compared to the regular ice cream, unlike the keto options where the sugar is almost zero. These aren’t really “keto” but they’re a ‘better for you’ option as compared to regular ice cream as you’re consuming less of the bad stuff. Talking about taste they do taste pretty good. But here’s my take on these, yes they’re better than regular ice cream but I don’t see a reason in picking these over the previously mentioned keto options. If you’re already trying to be healthy and reduce sugar might as well cut it out. I guess these do help if you’re gradually making small changes which I am a proponent for but in the case of ice cream, you rather go to the keto ones which don't make you miss regular ice cream.
My experience
Pros: Firstly switching to keto ice cream is a great way to curb those cravings when you’re trying to stay healthy without restricting yourself to a point of breaking. These don’t have any health benefits as such but the way I look at it is by picking these over regular ice cream you’re skipping the sugar which is a benefit to your health. Lastly at times when you’re trying to diet you enter this phase where eating certain foods makes you feel guilty which isn’t the best relationship to have with food in my opinion, here’s where options like these can help fix this and can be enjoyed “guilt-free”.
Cons: So we know most of the keto ice-creams are based on not sugar but sugar alcohols. These sugar alcohols when consumed in large quantities can cause problems with digestion. I’d say not to go too crazy with your proportions Another somewhat limiting factor when it comes to these keto options is the cost. These are more costly as compared to regular ice cream and can be up to four times higher. Now I won’t ask you to spend extra and go for it, but I feel if you like to enjoy ice cream more often, this may be worth the cost for your health.
Verdict
If ice cream is your go-to dessert option but you’re also trying to be cautious about your health keto ice cream is a savior and I highly recommend picking this over regular ice cream the next time you shop. Also because there’s so much room to play around here in terms of flavors chances of missing regular ice cream are less.
Thanks for stopping by. Let me know your thoughts and what other categories you would like me to talk about. Have a great day!