Is Ice Cream Healthier Than Frozen Yogurt?

The cashier at Whole Foods was scanning my containers of Stonyfield Farm organic frozen yogurt.

I was buying two : fat-free Vanilla Fudge Swirl and — yes, going wild here — the low-fat Cookies ‘n’ Cream.

“You know which kind I eat?” she asked me.

I was waiting for her to say the fat-free Minty Chocolate Chip, which is what got me hooked on Stonyfield’s frozen yogurt.

Not because I like the Minty Chocolate Chip. In fact, I really hated it when I tried it — and mint chocolate chip is one of my favorite ice cream flavors. But this had a tang to it that I found off-putting and on the whole, I didn’t consider it a pleasant experience.

But I like Stonyfield — the company, I mean — so I was determined to give them another chance. That’s how I wound up buying the Vanilla Fudge Swirl and Cookies ‘n’ Cream.

“Which flavor frozen yogurt?” I asked her.

She laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, I don’t eat any of the frozen yogurt. I only eat the full-fat ice cream — After Dark Chocolate.”

“Really!” I bit down on my lip to keep from asking, “For the love of God, why??!!”

I’m not trying to be mean, but this woman was not particularly thin or young. Not that that even matters. Why would anyone eat full-fat ice cream on a regular basis? Yeah, it tastes better, but come on. We’re talking double digit grams of saturated fat. No one needs that in their diet.

“Wow,” I said next, wondering how many more meaningless exclamations I could come up with before she finished ringing up the rest of my stuff.

“It tastes SO much better,” she said.

“Well, of course,” I laughed. “Frozen yogurt will never win in a contest against ice cream.”

“You probably eat frozen yogurt because you think it’s healthier, right?” she asked.

I nodded. And because I always am truly curious about how other people’s minds work, I asked, “Isn’t it?”

“Not at all,” she said, weighing my butternut squash. “Read about it. All those tests they’ve done on ice cream, telling you how bad the saturated fat is for you … those tests weren’t done on cows that were eating organic grains and grasses.”

“And that makes a difference?” I asked her.

She reached for my organic broccoli crowns. “Absolutely. Stonyfield’s After Dark Chocolate ice cream is made with only top quality organic cream, organic whole milk and organic sugar. It’s all good for you.”

Now, her line of reasoning was getting dangerously close to my own feelings about food and diet.

I’ve written it here before: Eat whole foods that you don’t have to read, foods your body was actually intended to ingest, and you can’t go wrong.

I’m not advocating loading up on butter, for instance. But I do think using a small pat of butter to fry an omelet is a lot better for you than using margarine.

“I want to believe you,” I said. “But …”

“I know,” she handed me my receipt. “Read up on it. I’m telling you the truth. These saturated fats won’t hurt you. Thanks for bagging.”

OK.

So I went home and had to look it up. Because if this Whole Foods cashier was right, my entire life would be turned upside down. Imagine: Actually being able to eat real full-fat chocolate ice cream free of guilt!

I’ve been scooting around the Internet now for a good half hour and I have to tell you … I got nothing.

Absolutely nowhere does it say that eating organic saturated fat does your body any good.

I did find one website that said ice cream might be the better choice than non-fat frozen yogurt because it usually doesn’t have as much sugar. Which makes sense. I mean, they have to put something in non-fat frozen yogurt to make it taste decent, right?

The only thing left to do was go to Stonyfield’s website and compare the After Dark Chocolate ice cream with the (indulgent) low-fat Cookies ‘n’ Cream frozen yogurt.

Here are the ingredients for the ice cream: ORGANIC CREAM, ORGANIC WHOLE MILK, NATURALLY MILLED ORGANIC SUGAR, ORGANIC COCOA, ORGANIC VANILLA FLAVOR, ORGANIC CAROB BEAN GUM, ORGANIC GUAR GUM.

And here are the ingredients for the frozen yogurt: CULTURED PASTEURIZED ORGANIC NONFAT MILK, NATURALLY MILLED ORGANIC SUGAR, ORGANIC CHOCOLATE COOKIES (ORGANIC WHEAT FLOUR, ORGANIC EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, ORGANIC PALM OIL, ORGANIC COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), ORGANIC INVERT CANE SYRUP, BAKING SODA, SEA SALT, SOY LECITHIN, ORGANIC VANILLA FLAVOR), ORGANIC RICE SYRUP, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, ORGANIC VANILLA FLAVOR, ORGANIC CAROB BEAN GUM, ORGANIC GUAR GUM. CONTAINS: S. THERMOPHILUS, L. BULGARICUS, L. ACIDOPHILUS, BIFIDUS, AND L. CASEI LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES.

I don’t see any red flags here. In fact, it’s probably a lot better for you to eat the yogurt just because it has those live active cultures.

I made one more check: Sugars. I figured the frozen yogurt undoubtedly contains more than the ice cream.

Sorry to tell you: They both have 20 grams of sugar. And for the non-fat Vanilla Fudge Swirl frozen yogurt, it goes up a whopping 3 grams. In return, of course, you get no saturated fat.

So my life will continue along the path of frozen yogurt. Every now and then — on vacation or if I happen to be near a homemade ice cream store — I may indulge in The Real Thing.

But otherwise, I will eat frozen yogurt and count on my happy ice cream memories to fill in the blanks of what I’m actually tasting.

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The Hypocritical Vegetarian: Chocolate

I gave up chocolate for two years when I was a teenager.

My skin had always been perfect and suddenly it was, well … you know. Spotty. So I stopped eating fried foods and chocolate.

I don’t remember much about my skin during those two years — but I do remember Life Without Chocolate.

What is it about chocolate?!

Clearly, it’s not addictive — or I couldn’t have given it up for two years. (Trust me, my willpower isn’t that good.)

But there is something so intensely, almost spiritually, satisfying about chocolate, it defies description — at least by me.

Fast forward to last weekend.

I was going to watch the baseball playoffs with friends, and it was my turn to bring dinner.

I came up with the menu pretty quickly:

• Wild Coho salmon sauteed in a hint of olive oil, with garlic, Dijon mustard, soy sauce and hoisin sauce
• Roasted asparagus and crimini mushrooms
• The amazing quinoa recipe I’ve already told you about.

I was good to go — when for some reason I flipped through the pages of The Whole Foods Market Cookbook. (I promise this is the last time I’ll mention this book — and no, they really aren’t paying me. But they should be.)

I saw a recipe I hadn’t noticed before for Silken Tofu Chocolate Mousse.

Huh.

I’m not a big fan of tofu — I often sense a chalky aftertaste that puts me off it. But this had all the flavors I love: chocolate, coffee, almond, vanilla. And it sounded so bizarrely healthy for a dessert.

Best of all: It looked like it would take about 3 minutes to make.

So here you go — a recipe for one of the most intensely flavored and delicious chocolate desserts I’ve ever made (and you have to believe me when I say I’ve made a lot of chocolate desserts!)

I do want to mention that the flavors were so strong, we needed to cut it with whipped cream (my choice) or serve it over vanilla frozen yogurt. No one was disappointed.

This mousse is incredible.

Silken Tofu Chocolate Mousse:

• 12 oz. silken tofu, drained
• 1/4 C plus 3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s special dark)
• 1/3 C pure maple syrup
• 1 Tbs instant coffee granules (decaf for me)
• 1 Tbs pure vanilla extract (yeah, it’s a lot — but it works)
  
• 1 oz Amaretto (about 2 Tbs)

(It also calls for 1 Tbs orange zest, but I have a personal dislike of chocolate mixed with orange, so I just left it out.)

Toss everything in a food processor for 1 1/2 minutes until smooth. Pour into individual cups or a larger serving dish and chill at least 6 hours.

Let me know what you think — and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

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Ever Tried This In Your Falafel?

I love falafel and have been making my own forever.

So imagine how excited I was to find a new falafel recipe calling for an ingredient I rarely use: bulgur.

Typically, the basis for my falafel has been garbanzo beans and flour — with a lot of other stuff thrown in. But the recipe in The Whole Foods Market Cookbook calls for bulgur in place of the flour.

And that’s another thing: I’m always wary of any cookbook or recipe that’s put out by a particular company (the exception being Nestle’s Toll House cookies, of course).

I just figure they’re promoting their own agenda and the emphasis is more about getting you to buy something from them rather than good food.

But I have to say, I love this cookbook and after making their Baked Falafel Balls with Lemon Tahini Sauce last night, this is will be my go-to falafel recipe.

It’s crunchy with a lot of spicy, lemony zing, and the bulgur gives it a great consistency that helps the falafel hold together instead of getting mushy, which happened occasionally when I’d use flour. (You can find bulgur in the natural foods section of most supermarkets.)

Since the garbanzo beans have to go in the food processor (as does the bulgur), the recipe also gave me a chance to try out my brand new — and very cute — 3-cup Kitchen-Aid processor, which I’ll tell you about another time.  For now, let’s just say my semi-impulsive purchase of this little food processor was well worth it.

So here’s the recipe — enjoy! And let me know what you think.

Also, make sure to follow me on Twitter for the latest news in food, health and healthy food!

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Comfort Food That Really Comforts

I had to say good-bye to my cat this week.

That isn’t a sentence I thought I’d be writing for a few more years, at least.

But.

Life frequently throws its own agenda at us, leaving us to pick up the pieces somehow or other.

Which got me thinking about comfort food.

Fortunately, I’ve never been an eat-when-you’re-down kind of person. But when I need comfort, I trust my instincts to let me know what I should eat.

And last night it was eggs.

I was near a Whole Foods store, and ran inside to get whatever might appeal to me for my supper of eggs.

I didn’t plan ahead about what to buy — I just walked up and down the aisles and if it seemed good, I tossed it in the cart.

So here’s what I made for dinner:

I sauteed in just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil:

• 2 chopped green onions
• 2 sliced white mushrooms and 3 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/3 of a red bell pepper, chopped
  
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach, loosely chopped
  

In another pan, I sauteed in a drop of olive oil:

• 1 soy “sausage” patty, crumbled up

Meanwhile, I put two slices of Whole Foods’ incredible oatmeal bread in the toaster. While it was toasting, I scrambled my eggs and added a few tablespoons of milk.

I cooked the eggs in a teaspoon of unsalted butter and threw in a handful of low-fat shredded cheddar cheese. Then, I added the vegetables and soy  patty.

(I tend to go more for scrambling eggs together as opposed to omelets. I get it to cook more evenly and frankly, it’s a lot easier!)

So dinner was my amazing egg scramble, 2 slices of oatmeal toast with some unsalted butter and a half glass of Cotes du Rhone.

I know there really was nothing earth-shattering about my meal.

It didn’t bring my cat back — but it was comforting. And at least last night, that counted for something.

What’s your comfort food? I’d love to know.

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