Ice Cream...A Health Food?

Ice cream...a staple of American cuisine and primarily noted as a dessert item, but did you ever think that it could be considered something good for you as well?  A great guilt relieving thought right!  However, a little clarifying is in order first.  Ice cream the way most of us know it by industry standards is NOT the health food that I'm talking about.  Ice cream today resembles little of what it once was and what most of our grandparents grew up eating.  Modern ice cream is a synthetic chemical concoction of color, flavor and texture enhancers.   Combined with milk/cream from hormone treated cows, loaded with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils.  Sure it may taste good, but is hardly something we even intuitively feel is healthy.

There is another way and YES, I will be referring to making it yourself, because this is the only way that it can ever be considered remotely healthy because most of the ingredients used are illegal to sell in products to the public.  Not blaming the industry, just saying that if you want something done right...gotta do it yourself.  Like most everything.

Making ice cream healthy must first begin with some essential ingredients.  Beginning with the most important, MILK.  If you have access to real milk (raw milk) this is the key ingredient for this health food ice cream recipe.  We've been purchasing ours from various farms for several years and generally every state has raw milk farmers that will sell to the public.  Just takes a little leg work in finding them, but using a directory such as http://www.realmilk.com/where.html puts you well on your way.   State laws vary on the subject but in Tennessee and other states it is NOT illegal to drink from your own cow, so farmers will often establish cow share programs to buy into.  This just means you own stock (shares) in a community cow.



Raw milk can be more costly than organic milk in the supermarkets just depending on the farmer and the demand.  Comparatively, there is no competition in quality as raw milk is superior in taste and nutrition.  I usually advise people that if you are drinking pasteurized milk on a regular basis (even organic) consider stopping.  Stick with cheeses, yogurts and kefir from the stores if you have a taste for diary.  Pasteurized milk is really a junk food (unless used for cooking) and not suitable for a regular beverage.  I certainly would not give it to my young children as a source of Vitamin D and calcium as touted by the industry.  Pasteurization kills many of the nutrients in milk, so manufacturers must enrich the product with synthetic versions.  It's also void of good bacteria and many enzymes.  The homogenization process also renders the fat more likely to cause arterial blockages and many people report sensitivities to milk (lactose intolerance/allergies) when often they can handle raw milk just fine.  Food borne illness has also been found in pasteurized milk, so even though the process kills many bad bacteria it's not full proof.  Commerical dairy cows are raised with no access to grass or sunlight, fed GMO grains and given hormones (minus organic labels) to produce mass amounts of milk, often have mastitis (pus in milk) given antibiotics and usually live very short lives. They are NOT healthy animals, nor do they produce healthy milk...especially after it's been heat treated and homogenized.  The final product resembling little of what it was intended to be.  So, I highly recommend searching out a source for raw cow, goat or sheep milk depending on the availability and taste preference.

That's my dissertation on the first ingredient...



Now, the second most important ingredient is eggs...pastured eggs or commonly called "free range" in stores.  Course there are varying levels of free range as the definition can mean mostly grass fed or letting the birds out once a day in a tiny area and then mostly confinement and GMO grain fed.  Not a whole lot of honesty in this system.  However, adding eggs to ice cream raw you want to make sure the birds are fed well and treated in the most human manner to minimize disease.  Again, it's hard to trust the commercial industry in this endeavor, so better off finding a good source of local, pastured eggs.  Talk to the farmer and their practices, visit the farm and use good sanitary practices when handling.  Ask farmers if they wash the eggs.  Technically it's better if they don't and you do it at home right before use.  Eggs are porous and when washed (done commercially) it weakens the membrane that protects the egg from disease making salmonella more of a risk.  We never wash our eggs unless they are very soiled and only under water temps higher than the internal egg temperature.  Since we raise our own hens we know their health well.

The third most important ingredient is the choice of sweetener.  Honey, maple syrup and organic cane sugar are my preferences.  For vanilla ice cream using maple gives it a rich and more vanilla flavor.

Ok, putting it all together:

Healthy Raw Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe


-Using raw milk with cream that has settled to the top dump into a clean bowl for 8 cups.
-Add 6 raw pastured eggs blending with a mixer
-Add 1 cup of preferred sweetener blending well
-May also add non-alcoholic vanilla extract now or wait until the end of churning for alcohol versions as they can affect freezing
-Pour into ice cream canister (this recipe is for a 4 qt. maker, half the recipe for smaller makers and quantities)
-Follow manufacturer's instructions for maker.

*Can also use arrowroot powder or organic corn starch for thickener.  Consistency will be thinner than store bought varieties, but when placed in the freezer will harden some.  Pastured eggs will also give more of a custard look and taste also enhancing the vanilla flavor.

So, the sky's the limit from this point with adding toppings or flavors.

My favorite is a chocolate syrup made from organic raw cocoa powder, maple syrup and butter.  Just blend ingredients over heat and then drizzle onto ice cream.

Another fun flavor is mint chocolate chip using:  a drop of peppermint essential oil
and mini chocolate chips.  Very minty and yummy!










What else is in commercial ice cream?  I've already mentioned a few suspect ingredients but here are a few more.

Propylene glycol, ethyl acetate, and yellow dye #5 

Caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, and amyl acetate are additives in some commercial ice creams.  diethyl glycol -- a cheap chemical used to take the place of eggs, which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers.

Aldehyde C-17, flavoring for cherry ice cream, is an inflammable liquid used in dyes, plastics, and rubber. Piperonal, used in place of vanilla, is a lice killer. 


Ethyl Acetate, a pineapple flavor, can also clean leather and textiles.  Ethyl Acetate's vapor has been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage.

Mono and diglicerides, disodium phosphate, benzyl acetate, mono stearate, propylene glycol, sodium benzoate, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate, modified corn starch and soy lecithin.

Now, just because most of these additives are on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list by the FDA, doesn't prove they aren't harmful and besides, the real question is: Are any of these ingredients desirable or even necessary to an originally wholesome treat? Also, the FDA does not require ice cream makers to label all of their ingredients, so wonder what else is lurking behind the label!