By Carol Berg Sloan, RD, Nutrition Columunist
Even though school’s back in session, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the last few nuances of summer–including frozen treats such as ice cream, sherbet and frozen yogurt.
While frozen desserts come in many forms, they are not all created equal when it comes to ingredients and nutritional composition. Here’s an official definition:
Ice Cream is a mixture of dairy ingredients such as milk, and nonfat milk, sweeteners and other products such as fruit, nuts or chocolate. By federal law it must contain at least 10 percent milk fat.
Sherbet has milk-fat content between 1 and 2 percent and a higher sweetener content than ice cream.
Gelato is an Italian style ice cream with rich, strong flavors and a denser texture. Gelato contains milk, sweeteners, cream, egg yolk and flavoring.
In terms of labeling, here are specifics you need to know:
• Reduced fat ice cream contains 25% less total fat that regular ice cream
• Nonfat means less than .5 grams of fat per serving.
• No sugar added means neither the ice cream nor the add-ins have been sweetened with extra sugar.
And how about those shops cropping up all over Long Beach and the vicinity?
Pinkberry is a soft-serve frozen yogurt that has a tangy aftertaste. The company is quite secretive about the ingredients and will only state that it does contain milk, natural sweeteners but no gluten or gelatin. A four-ounce serving contains 100 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, 140 grams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrate and 20 grams of sugar.
Two flavors are available–original and green tea.
The service on 2nd street is bad with an attitude so check out the one on Broadway for a good first impression.
Dippin’ Dots are beads of cryogenically frozen ice cream or yogurt. They use a combination of natural ingredients, the same found in conventional ice cream or yogurt, and flash freeze it into tiny beads.
There is a new Dippin’ Dots Store at 5475 East Carson Street across from Heartwell Park. One serving of Dippin Dots nonfat frozen yogurt has 110 calories, no fat or cholesterol, 90 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrate and 19 grams of sugar.
Bericup at Lakewood Mall now serves up all-natural, nonfat frozen yogurt in delicious flavors such as mango, kiwi and raspberry. They are so new that the nutritional analysis is not yet available. However, the store is pleasant and worth a trip.
Golden Spoon is one of my favorite places to grab a “cold one.” They start with skim milk and then add three live, active cultures that turn the milk into yogurt. Flavors change frequently and there is always quite an assortment to choose from daily.
A four-ounce serving contains 68 calories, 76 grams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates and 9 grams of sugars.
Whatever your favorite is, enjoy it in moderation. A serving of any frozen confection is 3 to 4 ounces or about a half a cup!
