See creamy cake=worse than ice cream

I don’t want to feel guilty every time I think about ice cream. I don’t aim to match 苦行僧

• !! Though addictive, ice cream is NOT nearly as bad as opium or electronic games.
• Warning — avoid big tubs more than 1 liter because having it in my fridge is an unwanted, dangerous temptation.
• 🙂 Ice cream as a dip can make my raw veg more palatable and help reduce appetite and overall calorie intake. It worked well with carrots every time, and “leafy mix” is even better.

— calorie numbers are extremely high, on par with cheesecake as the heaviest food I eat.

The real intuitive estimate of calorie — The small tub is exactly one pint, typically 600 cal, as low as 300 cal in a light version(see Breyer’s below). I can eat two pints in one go !

The standard estimate is imprecise for me — A women’s fist (= half a pint = 8 fl oz = a “cup”) has 300 cal but a light version might be 30% to 50% lighter.

Ice cream (cheesecake worse) are extremely dangerous to weight watchers like me due to 1. highest calorie in one “meal” 2. impractical portion control. In contrast, chocolate portion control is easier.

To control the calorie intake you need ridiculous portion size like a few spoonful ! Forget it… Instead, the only practical solution is controlled indulgence —

• Living alone in the U.S., for years I didn’t keep ice cream at home. I only had them in restaurants, even though more expensive. Now (sitting in BK) I feel this “control” is rather effective.
• I think if I do keep ice cream at home I should only buy a pint, even if more expensive.
• Another proven technique — ice-cream fasting. For a few months I abstain. Then I choose to open up for a few months. Then back to abstinence.
• Need to pro-actively prevent loss of control at office treats
• … Now I feel in control and more powerful than the temptation

In 22 Dec 2018 dinner I had 50%~60% of a pint (with 6 oz of raw leafy mix), beyond my appetite. Assuming 540 cal/pint (a high-calorie flavor), I had about 300 cal of ice-cream. Therefore,
-> with raw veg my comfortable capacity ~~ 250 cal of ice cream, far less than assumed 🙂 A lighter ice cream is 30% lower.

In 30 Dec BK session, I had 2 cones 340 cal of ice cream with 10 oz of raw leafy mix.

Somehow, I feel ice cream is lighter than the addictive starchy foods in Singapore. This feeling is contradicting published calorie density. I think ice cream has lots of water so calorie density is significantly lower. Some say one cup of ice cream is too small for most people, but if we remove the water, one cup would shrink to half a cup.

— Q: how can we reliably compare calories across ice cream brands

1. It appears that adding some nuts or chocolate chips would increase the calorie number significantly, but what about adding 15% fruits? They should Replace 15% of the high-fat ice cream therefore reduce calorie numbers, but I doubt that’s how calorie numbers are computed.
2. ice cream is primarily measured by volume not weight…
3. “per-100gram” is questionable as water content are rather different across brands. Half a cup can be 56g to 84g 🙁
4. the measurement methods are highly inconsistent across brands resulting in highly disparate calorie numbers. Some light versions are not lighter in cal/gram than the standard ones across the aisle.
5. …Therefore, I only compare calorie numbers within a brand. I basically assume the standard vanilla ice creams in Brand A is basically equivalent to the standard vanilla in Brand B. If Brand B offers a lighter version it is likely lighter than the standard ones in Brand B and also Brand A.

With an understanding of the calorie numbers, we can now look at some varieties:

• “standard” calorie is 200-260 cal/100g. In one article , 150 cal/half-cup is considered fairly healthy.
• zero-sugar (fake sugar)? I would be wary about the taste, but better test with a small one

• froyo — usually less fatty but roughly equal cal ! .. around 200 cal / 100 gram in Walmart. I think the Singapore big cup is probably 400 – 600 cal !
• The Friendly’s LIGHT variety (120 cal / 63 g) turned out very tasty.
  • 🙁 half the fat, but same calorie count as standard flavor, per-cup or per-100g !?
  • Control is still needed since the calorie count is still higher than all the foods in my diet.
• TurkeyHill nonfat, no-sugar-added [1] is 100+ cal/100g, about half the standard, but still much higher than my documented low-cal foods. Tasted FAR better than the cheaper one I tried earlier, although both made of fat-free milk 🙂
• Breyer has 310-cal/pint versions, about half the standard. We can try it in a promotion
• ENLIGHTENED has low-fat ice cream bars featuring 70-100cal/71g. Yes lowest is 70cal/71g 🙂
• ARCTIC ZERO BROWNIE BLAST (low-fat), 75 cal/70g,  reported to taste alright
• ARCTIC ZERO COOKIE SHAKE but no milk 🙁  35 cal/60g

[1] splenda is added, .. nice result.