Low-Fat Ice Cream

Light and light ice cream: Any good?

Once you get past the never-ending vanilla/chocolate debate, the real action in ice cream is in low-fat formulations. For years, manufacturers have been perfecting new techniques to whip up a froth of low-fat ingredients into fluffy, nicely textured, richly flavored ice creams.

We found no shortage of reviews covering low-fat, reduced-fat and no-sugar-added ice cream brands, but these reviews tend to cross-evaluate flavors, comparing chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and more exotic flavors, like cookies and cream and strawberry cheesecake, against one another. We consulted reviews from Cook's Illustrated magazine, which last evaluated light vanilla ice cream in 2007; as well as LifeScript.com, Woman's Day, The Boston Globe and Health.com. A few reviews also taste light ice cream alongside full-fat flavors. Under the umbrella of "light" ice cream, Breyers and Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned varieties dominate reviews.

Breyers recently revamped its product line; whereas previous light versions of this brand are called "Double Churn Light," all Breyers light and reduced-fat products are now known as "Smooth and Dreamy." Similarly, Häagen-Dazs former "light" line is now dubbed "Five." Häagen-Dazs Five is made with only five ingredients and contains less fat than regular Häagen-Dazs.

LifeScript.com includes Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Half-Fat Strawberry Cheesecake (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts) in its roundup, which earns a grade of "C," although two of the older Breyers Double Churn varieties are rated with a more favorable "B." In this review, Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Blends in Cookies 'n Cream (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts) is the best overall, with a rating of "B-plus." Tasters praise the flavor, which they say tastes much like regular ice cream, although its texture is criticized for being "foamy." Another Dreyer's/Edy's flavor, Slow Churned No Sugar Added Neapolitan (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts), doesn't please panelists in this review, however. Tasters say the three flavors tend to blend together, it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste and has a "cardboard-like" texture.

In a 2007 roundup of four light vanilla varieties by a panel of tasters for one foodie magazine, Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts) gets a mild recommendation and receives mixed remarks from The Boston Globe's panel. Some tasters say it has a "smooth vanilla aftertaste," but others describe its texture as "gummy" and call it "universally dreadful." The problem with both of these reviews is that the two top-rated light ice creams (Breyers Double Churn Light Creamy Vanilla and Häagen-Dazs Light Vanilla Bean) have been replaced by new formulations, so it's tough to draw conclusions.

To settle the score, we turned to a 2010 review from Woman's Day, which evaluates four light vanilla and four light chocolate ice creams, including Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Chocolate (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts), Breyers Smooth and Dreamy Half-Fat Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts), Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts) and Breyers Smooth and Dreamy Half-Fat Vanilla Bean (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts). Dreyer's/Edy's gets better scores than Breyers Smooth and Dreamy in both chocolate and vanilla categories and is named the best overall low-fat chocolate ice cream; Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla comes in second only to Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Lowfat Frozen Yogurt (*Est. $4 for 1.5 quarts).

In a roundup of 11 chocolate and 13 vanilla ice creams conducted by one consumer testing organization, Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean and Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Chocolate also outrank the competing Breyers Smooth and Dreamy flavors. While Häagen-Dazs Five Vanilla Bean and Häagen-Dazs Five Milk Chocolate both rank higher than Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned, this brand also contains double -- or more -- the calories and fat of both Breyers Smooth and Dreamy and Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned. The editors at Cook's Illustrated magazine and other experts report that federal labeling laws let manufacturers use the term "light" on ice cream with no more than half the fat and two-thirds the calories of the company's regular ice cream. Thus, light ice creams from premium brands tend to have more fat because the regular versions have so much more fat to begin with.

Clearly, if you're watching calories, it's important to examine the "low-fat" claims of ice cream brands with extreme skepticism. Other terms to watch for are "reduced fat" (the ice cream has at least 25 percent less fat than regular ice cream), "low-fat" (the ice cream has three grams of fat or less) and "fat-free" (less than .5 gram of fat per serving). Overall, Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Chocolate (which has 4 grams of fat and 100 calories per serving) fares better when compared against other light ice creams and full-fat varieties in reviews than Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean, making it our best low-fat ice cream.

Organic doesn't necessarily mean "healthy"

"Organic" ice cream is the focus of several recent reviews, and while it's typically categorized as healthy or light, these labels aren't necessarily accurate. Organic ice cream is most often compared to Breyers All Natural and Häagen-Dazs Five varieties; while neither company claims to produce organic ice cream, some consumers are drawn to the promise of all-natural ingredients.

Julie's Organic (*Est. $4 per pint) dominates reviews focusing on the organic category, but receives consistently mixed feedback overall. Grist.org panelists describe Julie's Organic Vanilla as satisfying with an all-around vanilla flavor, but some note an "oily" aftertaste and call its flavor "dull." Kitchen Addiction pits Julie's Organic Vanilla against more mainstream vanilla ice creams, and although it fares well (coming in second overall), some say it's "good all around" but others contend with "blah" and "artificial."

Julie's Organic Chocolate (*Est. $4 per pint) is included in an organic chocolate ice cream roundup on Mother Nature Network, where it's described as "smooth and creamy" with a chocolate taste that's "sweet, but not too sweet." As with Julie's Organic Vanilla, an aftertaste is noted, although this taster says it's not overwhelming.

The deal with organic ice cream is that it's made with all-natural products; no artificial flavors or colors are used. In addition, animals producing by-products used in ice cream (such as milk, cream and eggs) are raised on an all-natural diet in an environment free of exposure to synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics and chemicals. Many consumers mistakenly assume organic equates to healthy, low-fat or low-calorie. To put it in perspective: Julie's Organic Vanilla contains 14 grams of fat and 210 calories per serving, while the Chocolate version has 12 grams of fat and 210 calories per serving; both are comparable to Häagen-Dazs Five Vanilla Bean and Häagen-Dazs Five Chocolate, which contain the highest fat and calorie counts among light ice creams. Both Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean and Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Chocolate (our best-reviewed chocolate ice cream) have 3.5 grams of fat and 100 calories per serving.