Low-Fat Ice Cream

How do low-fat ice creams compare?

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.

The hottest technique now is "churning," which (as The New York Times' Julia Moskin phrases it) "refers to a process called low-temperature extrusion, which significantly reduces the size of the fat globules and ice crystals in ice cream." The phrases "slow churned," "double churned," etc., have been popping up on ice-cream cartons with increasing frequency. The advantage of churning is that ice-cream makers don't have to compensate for lack of fat (which might otherwise adversely affect the ice cream's texture) by adding artificial ingredients.

By far the most popular brand (and flavor) of low-fat ice cream is Breyers Double Churn Light Creamy Vanilla (*est. $5 for 1.75 quarts), which is a top pick of both Good Housekeeping and Real Simple magazines. In its roundup of low-fat vanilla ice creams, Good Housekeeping says testers were amazed that Breyers was low fat, and praised its "fresh dairy flavor" and "pleasant vanilla taste." Real Simple's panel concurs: "Testers were amazed that this 'unbelievably rich-tasting' ice cream was actually low in fat." The New York Times also plumps for Breyers Double Churn (albeit in ice-cream bar form), and it's also a favorite of Boston.com, one of the tasters for which calls it "pretty much close to perfection, especially with less fattiness." (However, Boston.com warns against the Vanilla Bean variety, saying it's "distractingly gritty.")

No other brand of low-fat ice cream (churned, vanilla or otherwise) even comes close to Breyers Double Churn Light Creamy Vanilla. Boston.com's taste test of low-fat vanilla ice cream is typical: one panelist says Hood Light (*est. $4 for 1.75 quarts) "tastes like the carton," while others agree that Healthy Choice (now only available in ice cream sandwiches and bars) "doesn't taste like vanilla." Another churned variety, Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Rich & Creamy Light Vanilla Bean (*est. $5 for 1.75 quarts), earns mixed reviews, with some panelists calling its taste either "innocuous" or "dreadful."

And then we get to Häagen-Dazs Light Vanilla Bean (*est. $4/pint) and Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Light (*est. $4/pint), which exemplify the pitfalls of judging a "low-fat" ice cream by its carton. Boston.com notes that the Häagen-Dazs has "twice the calories and fat of the others" and is also "the most expensive of the lot;" not surprisingly, many of its tasters vote for the Häagen-Dazs, though not as many as for the (lower-fat) Breyers. And in its roundup of low-fat vanilla ice creams (which seems to have been published before the debut of Breyers Double Churn), Eating Well puts Ben & Jerry's in the "excellent" category, but admits that "it is really only light in comparison to Ben & Jerry's ultra-rich, super-premium vanilla and its extravagant competitors, such as Häagen-Dazs."

Clearly, if you're sticking to a diet, it's important to examine the "low-fat" claims of ice cream brands with extreme skepticism. The editors at Cook's Illustrated 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.

Other terms to watch for are "reduced fat" (the ice cream has at least 25% 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).