Day 13: Black Cherry Soy Ice Cream

     The first thing that went through my mind when I was told by my doctor, a few months ago, that I was not allowed to have any lactose for a month was; you’ve gotta be kidding me. “How am I going to survive without dairy?” I lived for eating cheese, pizza, and ice cream. I found it was really hard to give up dairy until I completely changed my diet and found a whole new world full of substitute products.

    Tonight I had Black Cherry Soy Ice Cream from Trader Joe’s, which was absolutely to die for. I was thrilled that I found something so similar to traditional ice cream, without the dairy. While the soy ice cream was just as satisfying as any normal scoop of ice cream, I felt a lot better after eating it than I do after consuming a scoop of traditional ice cream. I didn’t feel gross after eating it, unlike the icky coated throat feeling you get after you ate too much ice cream, but instead I felt light and satisfied. The great part is, while there still is a lot of sugar in the soy ice cream, like any dessert, there is no cholesterol and has less overall fat and sugar than normal traditional ice cream.

     It is sad what we put into our bodies without even knowing it. Jamie Oliver did a whole section in his show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” season 2 episode 3 on what is actually in the artificial products we usually have on our ice cream. He goes as far as to create his own sundae using the hidden ingredients that really go into the artificial toppings, that we aren't aware of. Some of the ingredients he brought out were live lac bugs, that make the shellac used in sprinkles and hard candy, as well as human hair with duck feathers that is used in cookie dough ice cream to keep it soft. He then goes on to take out a long list of the ingredients used to make what appears to be a simple sundae. His words of wisdom are if you look at the back of a nutrition label and see ingredients with long words you don't understand just don't eat it. It is important to know what you are actually eating and putting into your body. Here is a clip from the episode. You can also watch it for free on  Hulu or on the site http://www.watchjamieoliver.com/.