Sex, Lies, and Fat-Free Ice Cream

July 17th, 2008 · 11 Comments

The Skinny on Skinny Cow Low-Fat Ice Cream

Today, a doctor at the wellness center that I work out of asked me to evaluate a package of the Skinny Cow Low-Fat Ice Cream Sandwich.

The front of the package sounds good:

97% Fat Free
140 Calories Per Serving
3 Grams of Fiber
0 Grams of Trans Fat
4 Fl Oz

Okay, let’s stop right here.
When I first read this I immediately had a few red flags come up.

First off, whenever you see a product, especially ice cream or pastries, that say low fat or 97% fat free, there is almost always a ton of chemicals, sugars, and hidden fats added.

However, the proof is in the pudding…
So, let’s turn over the package and look at the nutrition facts and ingredients list.

Nutrition Facts:
Total Fat: 1.5 grams
Total Carb: 30g
Protein: 4g
Total: 35.5 grams

To the average “weight loss victim” this sounds good.
But let’s examine this a little further.

The front of the package states that the ice cream sandwich is 4 ounces.
4 ounces = 112 grams

112 grams - 35.5 grams = 76.5

Okay, here’s the deal:
The nutrition facts section gives nutrition information for only 35.5 grams of food, but the ice cream sandwich actually contains 112 grams of food.
What happened to the other 76.5 grams of food that are not accounted for?

You guessed it… hidden fats, hidden sugars, and chemical preservatives!
Don’t believe me? Read on to discover the TRUTH.

Note: I’ll let you in on a little secret. I never look at the Nutrition Facts section of packaged foods. The only thing I look at is the list of ingredients.
Why? There are too many FDA loopholes that allow food manufacturers to lie on the Nutrition Facts section of a food label. However, food manufacturers are required to list all of a foods ingredients in its Ingredient List.

Skinny Cow Ingredients List:
skim milk, wafer (bleached wheat flour, sugar, caramel color, dextrose, palm oil, corn flour, cocoa, high fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, baking soda, salt, mon0 and diglycerides, soy lecithin), sugar, corn syrup, polydextrose, cream, whey protein, inulin, stabilizer (microcrystalline cellulose, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, locust bean gum, calcium sulfate, polysorbate 80, carageenan), natural flavor, vitamin A palmitate.

Watch the following video to get an explanation of what these ingredients actually are and what they mean to your diet and weight loss goals:

After reading this post and watching this video, it is easy to see that this product and products like it do nothing more than sabotage your weight loss and fitness goals.

This is deceptive marketing at its finest.

Poor unsuspecting dieters eat this stuff on a daily basis thinking that they are eating a “healthy” ice cream.

One of the things that really gets me is the fact that some of the biggest fitness and weight loss “gurus” recommend and approve Skinny Cow ice cream as a healthy alternative to regular ice cream.

In conclusion, Skinny Cow ice cream is extremely harmful to you. It will sabotage your weight loss and diet goals.
Avoid Skinny Cow ice cream like the plague.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this subject.
I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Committed to your success,

Alexander Morentin, C.E.S.
Whole Foods Evangelist
My Fit Life

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Tags: Food Reviews, deceptive marketing, fat free, high fructose corn syrup, skinny cow, weight loss goals Tags: deceptive marketing, fat free, high fructose corn syrup, skinny cow, weight loss goals

Tags: Food Reviews

11 responses so far ↓

1 Darlene Norris (Who am I?) // Jul 17, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Oh, sadness! You mean I can’t lose weight by eating fat-free ice cream? sigh. I KNEW it was too good to be true! Actually, I’ve never seen Skinny Cow. I’ve bought the sugar-free ice cream at Publix in the past for my diabetic husband, but we’re trying to avoid artificial sweeteners now.

There’s really only one way to lose weight–eat less and exercise more. You can’t eat your way out of that one!
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3.2
2 Brennan Kingsland (Who am I?) // Jul 17, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Thank you for pointing out this trickery. Almost every snack food package is set up in the same way, even roasted nuts.

If the cookies say 120 calories per serving, many folks don’t notice that a serving size means 1-2 cookies (or 12 peanuts), not handfuls and handfuls, until you’re full.
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3.2
3 Greg Lunger (Who am I?) // Jul 17, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Thank you again Al !

That is enlightening information for me in how to look at the labels.

Between your Blog here and your book Better Living with Wholefoods, I am living Healthier and Happier !!!****** =)
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2.2
4 Live Well (Who am I?) // Jul 17, 2008 at 9:23 pm
You are fantastic for posting this! Thank you! And I especially agree with your little note about never looking at the nutritional fact on the package but always reading the ingredient labels.
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2.5
5 liza (Who am I?) // Jul 18, 2008 at 12:18 am
thanks for sharing this great information. many of are not aware of the loopholes, as long as they see it’s fat free or sugar free that’s enough for them.
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2.5
6 Robin Plan (Who am I?) // Jul 18, 2008 at 6:26 am
First let me thank you for posting this. I would not buy this because it really is a chemical mixture. I am strongly against synthetics in my food or supplements and this product has huge RED FLAGS.
There are natural flavors ( which are not good for us) listed several times and way more ingredients I can’t pronounce. Sugar free doesn’t mean healthy because they have to add so much “other” stuff to give it taste.

Also this is questionable:
NOTE: Excessive Consumption May Have a Laxative Effect in Sensitive Persons.
Thanks for the great post.
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2.5
7 Project Swole - Build Muscle and Lose Fat (Who am I?) // Jul 18, 2008 at 7:46 am
Wow. I know nutrition labels lie. I also know there are usually hidden carbohydrate calories in diet foods. However, I was not prepared for this evaluation in which 2/3 of the mass of the product in question were unaccounted for.

Seriously folks, stick to whole foods. Many diet foods are just junk food in disguise.
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1.7
8 heidi (Who am I?) // Jul 18, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Wow! I love your blog! I watched your video and was so interested in learning this. I have fallend prey to this kind of marketing more times than I care to mention. I am a health newbie and really trying to understand it all. You really opened my eyes and I am so glad to have stopped by. I will be back for more! Wonderful.
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3.5
9 Alex Costa - minimizeme.tv (Who am I?) // Jul 21, 2008 at 10:18 am
Hi Alex, great post I completely agree with you, all those companies try to hide sugars and fat from their products and the FDA play their games by not trying to show to the public what really goes in those products.
That’s one of the reasons that I stop eating those cereal bars, they were just filling my sugar craving.
What happen to me about weight is the opposite what happen to you. I’ve been overweight all my life but in 1998 I started to workout and take a closer look in what I was eaten, as a result by 2000 I had lost over 100 lbs and I was in a very good shape with 15% body fat.
I could keep my weight for 3 years but unfortunately I recuperate everything that I lost and a little bit more.
Right now I got my act together and started again my weight loss journey, if you want to check out visit my blog, it will be cool to hear what you think.
Take care.
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2.5
10 Jennifer Robin (Who am I?) // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I’ve applied for an ad on your blog and look forward to being a faithful reader. If you look at my Monday post, you will see a bit of what I have had to say about healthy eating habits.

This ice cream product never would have made it into my grocery cart. I am fanatical about keeping high fructose corn syrup out of my kitchen, and anything that claims zero grams trans fat immediately sends up a red flag because of the calculations I know they use to make that determination.

Great post, keep them coming!
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11 shelley // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Alexander I have a pet peeve about all the “low fat” and “fat free” choices on the shelves. People have been getting fatter since all these so called diet foods were introduced! Education is the ONLY answer !

Thanks so much for the thought provoking post!

Would you consider adding your site to our community as an inspiration to everyone? At any rate, my readers deserve to hear what you have to say.
Here’s the link http://www.benaturallywell.com/blog/add-your-blog/

I hope you pop by!
Many Blessings,
Shelley

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