For many, ice cream is a guilty pleasure we save for special occasions, days we feel we're deserving of a little treat, or for when our significant others break our hearts and we need a pint to ease our sorrows. Yes, the whole pint is needed for this. Unfortunately, ice cream is mainly a guilty pleasure because it's really unhealthy. Your average ice cream brand is high in calories, fat, sugar, and that horrible thing we call high fructose corn syrup.
But what if I told you that there's a brand of ice cream that's actually healthy? Prepare to cry tears of joy, because, yeah, it's a real thing. Enlightened Ice Cream prides itself on being the good-for-you ice cream that won't leave you feeling guilty about eating a bowl (or two) whenever your heart desires.
Enlightened Ice Cream is nutritious and delicious, and is low in calories, fat, and sugar. Additionally, each flavorful pint is full of protein and fiber, yet still tastes like the good 'ole ice cream you know and love (or maybe even better).
The ingredients list is also anything but that scary jumble of unknown and super long words you see on your average pint. The first item is skim milk (score!), which is also hormone-free. The second ingredient is milk protein isolate, which comes from filtering skim milk to remove its fat and sugar.
The result is a digestible, low-calorie, and low-sugar protein that delivers 7 to 8 grams of protein per serving, or 28 to 32 grams in each pint of ice cream. The rest of the ingredients are also anything but fake, and include things like rolled oats, peanuts, nutmeg, vanilla bean, and dutch cocoa.
So how is Enlightened Ice Cream so dang sweet? Well, each flavor gets its sweetness from monk fruit and erythritol, which are all natural sweeteners. Monk fruit is one of the sweetest melons in the world and is almost 200 times sweeter than sugar. Erythritol is extracted from fruits like grapes, pears, and melons, and has no effect on the glycemic index, meaning your blood sugar won't spike if you eat an entire pint.
Now let's get to the flavors, which are obviously the most important component of any ice cream, and Enlightened has some pretty damn delicious ones to offer. There's frozen hot cocoa, which is a chocolate ice cream base swirled with marshmallows and chocolate chips.
The classic mint chocolate chip is made with real mint ice cream (and each ice cream with a vanilla base is made with real vanilla beans, just FYI). My personal favorite, caramel oatmeal cookie crunch, is made of oatmeal cookie clusters, rich caramel swirls, and caramel ice cream.
With only 80 to 100 calories per serving, Enlightened Ice Cream will help you forget "guilty pleasures" even exist. Enjoy it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or as a healthy treat after a long day. With its protein and fiber content, it'll fill you up and deliver natural energy to your body and can even be enjoyed as a post-workout recovery snack. Each delicious flavor is sure to leave you feeling happy and wholesome, with absolutely no regrets to your body and health.
Disclaimer: I received this ice cream free of charge, but all opinions are my own.