Unexpected Health Benefits From Eating Ice Cream

"Is there anything more delicious than the nights you get to put on your coziest sweatpants and curl up on the couch with a bowl of your favorite ice cream?

Naturally, any of the health benefits ice cream has to offer should be considered alongside its drawbacks. Nonetheless, to say that ice cream is totally void of nutrition would be incorrect, and leaning into that fact just feels right.

Benefits of ice cream

Ice cream can be high in sugar, calories, and fat, but it can also be an excellent source of certain key nutrients. According to Eat This Much, one cup of vanilla ice cream offers 18% of the recommended daily intake (RDI) for vitamin A, 22% for B-12, and 17% for calcium.

Our bodies need vitamin A for cell division, reproduction, vision, and immunity, to name a few (per Mayo Clinic). We also need vitamin B-12 for proper brain and nervous system function, red blood cell formation, and the regulation of DNA. Calcium helps us to build strong bones and teeth, regulate muscle contractions and heart function, and ensures our blood clots properly.

In a 2021 article published in Nature Food researchers at Tufts University introduced a Food Compass they developed which ranks foods on a scale of one to 100 — with one representing the lowest nutritional value and 100 the highest. The Daily Mail compared the Food Compass results for a granola bar and a chocolate ice cream cone with nuts and found that the granola bar had a score of 15 while the ice cream cone came in at 35.

Anyone trying to maintain a healthy diet should eat ice cream only in moderation. However, the next time you find yourself reaching for a granola bar to tide you over, you may consider treating yourself to an ice cream cone instead!"

Read the full article on Health Digest

✨Takeaway: There are some unexpected health benefits of ice-cream! It can offer some important nutrients like vitamin A and calcium. A study found that found that a chocolate ice cream cone with nuts scored higher in nutritional value compared to a granola bar!

✨Reflection: What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?

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