I’ve been going on and on about making organic ice cream and my wife found a section in a recent purchase of a cookbook that gives what I feel is important data to all you ice cream lovers. I would like you to compare our method of making ice cream in about 45 minutes, to the mass production of "ice cream" by the various manufacturers. Check out those ingredient lists!
My wife recently purchased this cookbook so that I could learn more about how to cook better or to cook different things and vary our diet. I can definitely see her viewpoint. Our diet is going to be as diverse as possible and as organic as possible. And if we gain weight, I’m going to look for the food that is lugging down our systems, not the food that has "fat" in it.
The cookbook is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.
Okay! We eat organic ice cream composed of raw cream and raw colostrum, organic vanilla flavoring, two organic egg yolks and organic agave (it’s real sweet), and make it in an organic ice cream machine (this last is a joke). We’ll add organic fruit such as strawberries, cherries, concord grapes and pineapple juice from organic pineapples, etc. So far, it’s lots of fat, and so far NOT fattening.
Conventional Ice Cream Ingredients
It turns out that ice cream manufacturers are not required by law to list the additives they put in ice cream sold in stores. Here is a partial list of some "flavoring" ingredients in store-bought ice cream:
- Diethylglycol — a chemical used instead of egg yolks. It’s also used in antifreeze and paint removers.
- Piperonal — it’s used in place of vanilla. It’s used to kill lice.
- Aldehydec-17 — a cherry flavoring. It’s inflammable and also used in aniline dye (aniline: a colorless, oily, poisonous benzene derivative, used in the manufacture of rubber, dyes, resins, pharmaceuticals, and varnishes), plastic and rubber.
- Ethyl Acetate — a pineapple flavor. It’s used as a cleaner for leather and textiles. If you are unlucky enough to inhale Ethyl Acetate vapors, well, it’s been known to cause chronic lung, liver and heart damage. One wonders what ingesting it does to one’s body and systems.
- Butyraldehyde — a nut flavoring. It’s one of the ingredients in rubber cement.
- Amylacetate — a banana flavoring. It’s also used as an oil paint solvent.
- Benzyl Acetate — a strawberry flavor. It’s a nitrate solvent.
Most of the above listed "ingredients" are real tongue twisters — literally. I’m not going into what else is in your favorite tasting ice cream because I just wanted to concentrate on the toxic ingredients and emphasize how these ingredients can lug your various body systems down.
Conventional versus Organic Ice Cream
There’s no need to state the obvious when you compare the two different ice creams. One is healthy for you and your children and the other, well, in my opinion, went off the rails as far as conforming to the definition of nutrition — that is, something that will nourish your body.
By the way, I think that the food label "organic" should be named just plain old food. While the other food label "conventional" should be renamed "unconventional food" and should carry the label:
Warning! This food can be hazardous to your health
if you continue to eat it.
Pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and paint solvent, etc., have no place in our food.
Let’s encourage farmers to grow and raise just plain food and plenty of it! And pay them well for being a healthy service to our society.
5 Comments for "Healthy ice cream versus conventional ice cream"
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Diane Vigil
Comment posted on 08/23/07 @ 4:12 am
That’s pretty intense, George. Even when we were eating what was apparently organic ice cream (from the store), and I quite enjoyed it, there was still something about it that didn’t quite sit well with me. Or at least, with my system. It was almost as if there was an ongoing slight pain. Once we stopped that, whatever it was stopped happening.
And I’m very pleased to say that, now that we’re eating our own homemade organic ice cream, my skin looks great. I mean, it looks terrific.
So does this mean that, if I eat more ice cream, I’ll look fabulous? :)
George Vigil
Comment posted on 08/23/07 @ 5:32 am
It’s also good to know what exactly are we eating? By making our own ice cream, we don’t have to wonder if we are ruining our health. Who knows what other ingredients are in store bought ice cream. We have to take responsibility for what goes into our bodies and find out what’s good for us and what’s not. Processed “ice cream” is not good for us. Too many chemical “ingredients” inimical to our health are employed. Combine that with the consumption of other “processed” foods with their “ingredients” and we are set up to become “sick men and women of America.”
Diane Vigil
Comment posted on 08/23/07 @ 5:37 am
Yes. I remember when I was researching ice cream machines at Amazon.com — I was astounded by the number of people who were warning people not to use eggs, but rather to use a substitute.
Yuck. Use substitutes, nuke it to cook it, and you have -what?- I guess it’s still edible, and may even taste good (although that’s arguable) — but is it nourishment for the body?
Patricia
Comment posted on 11/13/07 @ 7:35 pm
WHY does the FDA food labeling law not require these ingredients to be listed on the ingredients list?
Diane Vigil
Comment posted on 11/13/07 @ 7:46 pm
> WHY does the FDA food labeling law not require these ingredients to be listed on the ingredients list?
Indeed. That is the question, isn’t it?
I’ve heard all kinds of arguments kicked around among consumers and/or food industry people, including: since all food is not available in organic form, then if organic markets only stocked pure organic food, the shelves would be mostly empty — and that would drive customers away.
That seems a little preposterous to me, and hardly prevents manufacturers from fully revealing what is in their products, which would leave consumers (and organic markets) better able to make their own choices. That individual manufacturers may not reveal all, but in so doing may yet adhere to the letter of the law, says plenty about them *and* the law.
But, if the FDA is going to be the arbiter of organic food labeling (and it is), you would think they’d insist on full disclosure of ingredients if their interests lie in protecting American consumers. That they do not insist on full disclosure speaks rather volumes. (And not too pleasantly.)