When the warm weather hit this week, all I wanted was some ice cream for dessert so I snagged some soy vanilla ice cream from Trader Joes. Ice cream can be part of a perfectly balanced diet – the key is balance. Many of my clients wince when they walk me through their typical daily diet. When it comes to their bedtime snack, they sometimes embarrassingly admit they scoop out a big bowl of ice cream and have their fingers crossed that I won’t nix it from their diet. Not me! I’m not the type of dietitian to tell you to completely omit a food from your diet (with a few exceptions…like whole milk. People – please stop drinking whole milk!!!).
Instead, I recommend that if you’re going to eat a not-so-good-for-you food, at least boost the benefits by pairing it with a good-for-you-food! So have your bowl of ice cream, but top it with some fresh berries. It’ll add more volume to the bowl so you still feel like you have a large serving, but it leaves less room for high fat ice cream, and more room for nutrients and antioxidants. If you’re going to take home pizza tonight, fine, but microwave a side of frozen veggies to enjoy on the side. Can’t give up your afternoon snack of a massive chocolate chip cookie? No prob – enjoy half of the cookie and pair it with a piece of fruit.
I followed my own recommendation by pairing some of my vanilla soy ice cream with a diced kiwi. It was sweet, tangy, and a little bit tropical. Just what I needed to satisfy my sweet tooth, and get a serving of fruit in to boot! Last night I had a bowl of mango and papaya topped with just a few tablespoons of the ice cream – there just wasn’t enough room in the bowl for more ice cream with all that fruit! See? Natural portion control. Satisfy your sweet tooth with this simple tip.
2 comments:
yes, that was a good snack-pairing fruits with ice cream.
Trader Joe's also has a new Tart Fro-Yo that is good like the soft serve kind and fills that craving at home. I like mine with fresh raspberries. Yum!
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