A scoop may not be sinful for ice cream buffs
A scoop may not be sinful for ice cream buffs
By Yogita Tahil Ramani
JAKARTA (JP): Vanilla, strawberry, cookies n' cream, rocky
road, pistachio, even durian -- almost all of us have a
preference when it comes to the sweet taste of delicious ice
cream.
The dish has tickled the taste buds of leaders throughout
history.
The ill-fated King Charles I, the 17th century English ruler
who was ultimately dethroned and beheaded, once offered a cook a
job for life if he made him ice cream and kept the recipe secret.
George Washington fancied ice cream so much that he once ran
up a US$200 bill for his obsession.
These are the lengths to which men and women in power have
gone for a taste of the creamy stuff, according to Dreyer's, one
of America's leading ice cream companies.
What these powerful people considered a culinary treat is
often scorned as unhealthy in contemporary society.
The public is perplexed when the term "healthy intake" is
attributed to ice cream, yet this was the message of the recent
Jakarta seminar "Ice Cream And A Good Life".
But can milk, cream and sugar -- the nutritious but high-
calorie bases of the dish -- be healthy choices, even if flavored
with vanilla, fruits, chocolate and, sin of sins, crushed
cookies?
Nutritionists and dietitians at the seminar, jointly sponsored
by Wall's Ice Cream and the Indonesian Association of
Nutritionists, gave a broad-based understanding of how ice cream
was not a complete dietary bugaboo.
Tuti Soenardi, a founder and chairperson of the Indonesian
Culinary Foundation, centered her speech around the Indonesian
health slogan Empat Sehat Lima Sempurna (Four spells health, and
five spells perfection), defining the basic food groups of
vegetables, meat, fruit, legumes and milk.
Milk in ice cream supplies calcium and other nutrients for
tissue and bone renewal, she added.
Tuti said there was no harm in feeding ice cream in measured
portions, equivalent to 250 ml of milk, to children unwilling or
unable to drink milk.
A single serving of ice cream generally contains 300 calories,
equal to drinking two to three glasses, she said.
She showcased Wall's ice cream recipes, an assortment of foods
and fruits from dates, raisins and strawberries, to baked
oranges, pineapples, durians and waffles.
Soebagio Soemodihardjo, director of the Nutrition Academy at
the Ministry of Health, explained different approaches in the use
and consumption of milk by different people in Indonesia.
He concluded it was unfounded for a culture to recommend milk
only to those who were sick or recuperating from illness.
Muhilal of the Center for Nutritional Research and Development
in Bogor underscored that people were often ignorant of ice
cream's actual nutritional value.
Since nutritional labeling on food -- excluding protein,
carbohydrates, fat and calories -- is not mandatory, most people
are unaware of the additional micronutrients that ice creams have
to offer, such as calcium, phosphorus and vitamins A, B1, B2 and
C, he said.
Paulus M. Verschuren, representative of the food and cosmetic
giant PT Unilever Indonesia, explored the relationship between
diet and health issues as they applied to his company.
Basis for developments in Unilever's new food products is
provided by results of epidemiological studies. An improved fatty
acid balance in the diet, for example, could "reduce the risk of
cardiovascular disease", he said.