The Inside Scoop: Diet VS Regular Ice Creams

If you’ve got a sweet tooth then ice cream is probably one of your weaknesses but that doesn’t mean you have to ditch it completely.

With more and more low calorie, low sugar ice creams hitting the market, enjoying this sweet treat while watching your weight is becoming more and more possible. But which ice cream is best for those dieting and do you really need to pay extra for the low-calorie versions? Can regular ice creams work for you too? Here’s the inside scoop:

Breyers Salted Caramel Cake Low-Calorie Ice Cream

Breyers is one of the market-leading low-calorie ice creams currently available in the supermarket. Promoting between 290-350 calories for the whole tub, they are also high in protein and lower in sugar.

Their Salted Caramel Cake ice cream is one of the higher calorie flavours in the range at 340 calories for the whole tub (working out at 68 calories per 100ml serving (approx. two scoops)) as well as each two scoops containing 4g of protein and 5.5g of sugar.

Comparing this to a supermarket’s premium own brand salted caramel ice cream, the same two scoops would contain 266 calories, 3.8g of protein and 22.6g of sugar, which shows that in this case, opting for the ‘diet’ option is best!

Halo Top Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Another market-leading low-calorie ice cream brand, Halo Top goes out of stock in all major supermarkets regularly due to being so popular and, as with the other brands, it claims to be lower in calories and sugar while higher in protein… but is it?

The peanut butter cup flavour isn’t their least calorific, but it does sit in the middle at 320 calories per tub and per 100ml serving, this flavour has 68 calories, 4.2g of protein and 5g of sugar. If we compare this to the ever-popular Ben & Jerry’s peanut butter cup ice cream, the same serving size has 280 calories, 6g protein and 21g of sugar.

So, in this case the Halo Top is lower in calories and sugar but considering this ice cream promotes being higher in protein, it actually has nearly 2g less than the Ben & Jerry’s version. So, if you’re choosing this ice cream based on protein, the non-diet version may be your better option.

Oppo Low-Calorie Colombian Chocolate & Hazelnut Ice Cream

Oppo also promise their ice cream to be low calorie, lower in sugar and a source of protein but how does it match up with the others?

Per 100ml of this ice cream, it contains 80 calories, 4.3g of protein and 5.1g of sugar which is relatively equal with the other brands but in comparison to a regular chocolate and hazelnut ice cream, a similar-sized portion contains 154 calories and 17.9g of sugar, so the diet option is definitely going to fit into your daily meal plan a lot easier.

Ben & Jerry’s Low-Calorie Cookie & Cream Ice Cream

Market leaders Ben & Jerry’s recently branched into the low-calorie ice cream market with their ‘moophoria’ range and their Cookies & Cream flavour has just 129 calories per 100ml serving which although may sound low, is actually a lot higher than other ‘diet’ ice creams.

Each 100g serving of this lower-calorie cookies & cream ice cream has 219 calories, 5g of protein and 23g of sugar whereas a regular cookies and cream ice cream for a premium ice cream brand has 262 calories, 4.4g of protein and 19.3g of sugar per 100g. So although the calories are slightly higher, the regular offering actually has notably less sugar and not much less protein, so your diet option may not be best on this occasion.

WheyHey Naturally Sugar-Free Chocolate Ice Cream

No promises in being lower in calories but selling itself on the basis of being naturally sugar free, the chocolate ice cream from WheyHey is said to be made with the best bit of the milk to be high in protein and ‘sugar wise’ but with all these claims, is it really a better option than regular chocolate ice cream?

100ml of the WheyHey chocolate ice cream contains 81 calories, 7.3g of protein and 0.4g of sugar which in comparison to a supermarket own-brand chocolate ice cream that contains 160 calories, 2.7g of protein and 16g of sugar per 100ml, the ‘diet’ version is definitely the better option on this occasion.

Alpro Soya Vanilla Ice Cream

Going dairy-free has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many people choosing to do it for health reasons but when it comes to ice cream, is the soya alternative better for your waistline?

Per 100g, the Alpro vanilla ice cream contains 166 calories, 2.3g of protein and 13.5g of sugar which in comparison to a supermarket premium own brand vanilla ice cream, that variety contains 216 calories, 3.9g of protein and 14.1g of sugar per 100g which is dramatically different and supports the theory that dairy-free isn’t always better for you.

So, do you believe us now when we say you can eat ice cream on a diet? Sometimes the varieties that are marketed as being healthier aren’t always, so make sure you do your research and pick the brand and flavour that is going to work best for your weight loss plan!