What’s the best vanilla icecream?

Navigating the icecream aisle can be challenging – the number of choices is overwhelming. To help you choose a good basic vanilla icecream, we compared three leading brands for nutrition, cost, and taste.

Nutritional comment

Icecream should not be eaten for its nutritional value. While there are several health benefits (calcium, protein, and several vitamins from milk), these are effectively cancelled out by its high sugar and high fat content. When comparing products nutritionally, go for varieties with lowest fat, lowest sugar, and fewest additives.

This tasting revealed an interesting fact – while one brand (Pams) looked and tasted like regular icecream, its actual classification was ‘‘frozen dairy dessert’’, which we did not notice when purchasing because it was written in tiny, pale letters. This classification was because it had less than the 10 per cent fat requirement necessary for ‘‘icecream’’ status. We continued with the comparison however, as we thought it interesting to see if a lower-fat icecream copy (something that most of us would consider as icecream anyway) could be just as good as the real McCoy.

Note: Bottom line

Icecream fits into the ‘‘sometimes’’ food category – any nutritional merit is cancelled by its high sugar and fat content. Frozen dairy desserts can be indistinguishable from real icecream and should also be regarded as a ‘‘sometimes’’ (not everyday) food. Their lower fat and kilojoule content however, makes them a better choice for people watching their weight. Portion control should be exercised for icecream and frozen dairy desserts.

Products are tested by NZ Registered nutritionist Bronwen King and a diverse, randomly selected group.