Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it

[Bruce Stephens]

Fun story about how nutrition scientists, while looking at things like dairy products (and yoghurt) accidentally found that it looks like half a cup of ice cream a week (whatever a "cup" is) seemed to be about as beneficial in reducing the risk of diabetes as yoghurt. They repeatedly assumed there must be something wrong with the result but couldn't quite work out what was wrong.

Nutrition Science’s Most Preposterous Result: Could Ice Cream Possibly Be Good for You?

Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it.

web.archive.org

 

[Drummer]

The ice cream my father's mother made and sold at their little shop was recommended by the GP and district nurse for children who did not thrive. It was made with cream from a local herd of Jersey cows which won prizes for their owner, and eggs from the hens in their back garden. It was called 'Forget ne Knot' and when word went round that a batch was being made, a queue would form at the door.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

accidentally found that it looks like half a cup of ice cream a week (whatever a "cup" is) seemed to be about as beneficial in reducing the risk of diabetes as yoghurt.

It’s a US recipe measure isn’t it? I guess the idea being it’s about a balance of proportions of ingredients rather than a specific weight? I suppose initially any household cup could have been used, as
long as the same one measured everything.

We ended up buying commercial nested cup / half cup / quarter cup etc measures when my youngest was in a childhood cupcake-making phase. Don’t know whether there is any sort of standard, but the ones we got suggest 240ml as ‘one cup’.

 

[Robin]

(whatever a "cup" is)

One standard US cup = 8fl.oz.
As @everydayupsanddowns says, it’s about 240ml. When I went to America, I bought a cookery book in New Orleans, and realising that all the recipes used cup measurements, I bought a pyrex 'cup' with measurements also in fl.oz and ml, which I brought back on the plane with me m and I've still got 45 yrs later.(the recipe book bit the dust years ago)

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

One standard US cup = 8fl.oz.

8 US fl.oz. is 236.6ml 😱

We’ve been diddled! And have been making recipes wrong all these years!

 

[PattiEvans]

You could buy a set of US cup measures for £1 in Poundland. I don't know if you still can. Also it might be 236.6ml but they vary when you come to dry goods as I discovered when I belonged to a "Cooks" website on long forgotten Compuserve. If something is "loose packed" such as Cornflakes it will weigh less than something "dense packed" as in flour. I recall trying to explain a scone recipe to an American woman who kept asking if my measures were loose or dense packed! I had no idea!

 

[Bruce Stephens]

It’s a US recipe measure isn’t it?

Of course I know what it is (well, in general terms, though I'd need to look it up if I actually wanted to use it). I'm just making fun of a daft measure.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

The ice cream my father's mother made and sold at their little shop was recommended by the GP and district nurse for children who did not thrive. It was made with cream from a local herd of Jersey cows which won prizes for their owner, and eggs from the hens in their back garden. It was called 'Forget ne Knot' and when word went round that a batch was being made, a queue would form at the door.

I'm pretty sure if that kind of ice cream was the one which seemed to be healthy they'd have been less bothered by it. But they're talking about generic commercial (overly sweetened) ice cream. They could imaging yoghurt (even the overly sweetened stuff) being healthy, but regular ice cream seemed a stretch.