Dishing the dirt on dessert, the real reason why we are all addicted

plus an easy DIY ice cream recipe that will make you forget about the frozen foods isle

Feb 06, 2023

coned ice cream with blueberries and flowers — Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

It’s easy to demonize sugar as being the culprit of sick & addicted populations, however today I am calling to attention some other addicting food additives, specifically in the world’s most popular dessert, ice cream.

Before I try to convince you to make your own ice cream, let’s discuss the worlds largest ice cream manufacturer…

About Unilever

Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods company (annual revenue 62 Billion USD in 2021) which sells ice cream in 63 countries around the world and commands almost a fifth of global ice cream sales, a bigger share than its next four competitors combined. The company owns five of the world’s 10 most valuable ice cream brands, including Breyers, Cornetto, Carte d’Or and Ben & Jerry’s.

**Not a complete list** of Unilever owned ice cream brands

The Unilever ice cream empire benefited greatly from lockdowns, sales increased by 26% between April and June 2020, and by 16% in the following quarter, compared to the previous year. Ben & Jerry’s even launched a special flavor “Netflix & Chill’d” in January 2020 – which became widely available in late Feb - perhaps in preparation to target those sitting at home?

I grew up enjoying many of these ice cream brands, especially as a young child and so I was a little shaken by what I learned about this corporation. Unilever’s ice cream product mission statements reads:

“To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating nutritious, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the Environment.”

It’s a nice mission, but the reality is not so pretty…

Magnum double chocolate ice cream Photo by: onsecondscoop.com

Low quality at a high quality price

Ben & Jerry’s falsely advertised their “caring dairy” program cows, when in fact the majority of their milk comes from mass production. It was also accused of being responsible for deterioration of water and soil quality in Vermont by the group Regeneration Vermont, which published a report stating that vast amounts of weed killers were being used for corn that was then fed to dairy cows.

In 2021, over 10,000 48 oz containers of Weis brand ice cream were recalled due to being contaminated with metal equipment shards.

Carte d’Or strawberry ice cream was recalled in Ireland after it was found to contain ethylene oxide, a carcinogen linked to breathing issues, cancer and nervous system disorders. Ethylene oxide is banned in the EU, but not in the US.

Let’s take a look at some of Unilever actions in recent years to get a feel for how much they care about their customers & employees…

In February 2019, Unilever hired “private securities” to unleash a torrent of rubber bullets on their own innocent employees while they were demonstrating peacefully in Durban, South Africa.
As of 2019, Unilever was a member the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the World Economic Forum, two lobby groups that lobby for free trade at the expense of the environment, animal welfare, human rights or health.
In 2016, Unilever profited from child labor and forced labor. Some workers were extorted, threatened or not paid for work. Some workers suffered severe injuries from banned chemicals in palm oil production.
In 2001, they were caught dumping over 2 tonnes of mercury into the environment of Kodaikanal, South India after a large number of people were caused severe illness and death. 45 Adults and 8 children died from toxic effects.
and the list goes on…

Bad news Breyers

Breyers, one of Unilever’s top brands, underwent a huge scrutiny for misleading consumers by featuring vanilla flowers and vanilla bean specked ice cream images on their cartons with a promise of “Rainforest Alliance Certified Vanilla” when in fact none of their ice cream actually contains ANY vanilla at all.

According to the 2020 Breyers class action lawsuit, instead of vanilla, the ice cream features a bioengineered derivative of synthetic yeast concocted in China called “natural flavor” – which is far from “natural”. Magnum ice cream has faced a similar lawsuit in 2019.

The production of “natural flavor” has little to no oversight from regulators, and it could mean just about anything.

Synbio vanillin, is a product of synthetic biology, an extreme form of bioengineering which became commonplace in supermarkets after FDA approval in 2014. Synthetic vanilla is over 200 times less expensive than obtaining actual vanilla bean, which is why it’s so commonplace - and it’s listed under “natural flavor” on the label.

According to the FDA, natural flavors are any plant or animal derived constituent processed to produce flavor through any process such as distillation, extraction, roasting, heating, enzymolysis, hydrolysis and fermentation.

The real weight in the US definition of natural is given to how the flavor is derived from the natural source, and not the process used. Regulations are slightly stricter in the EU because EFSA is more restrictive with the permitted processes.

Natural flavors are really not that different from artificial flavors, actually artificial flavors are simpler to make and contain fewer chemicals in the end.

To create a “flavor”, it doesn’t stop after the process of extraction, distillation, fermentation etc., this new flavor compound needs a host of other ingredients such as propylene glycol, benzoic acid and polysorbate 80 to be added to it for stabilization, emulsification and preserving purposes.

The FDA code does not require that “constituents” of an ingredient be disclosed to the consumer.

According to the EWG food roster which evaluates over 80,000 foods on their degree of nutrition, ingredient concerns and processing concerns, natural flavor is the 4^th most common food ingredient with only salt, water and sugar being listed more frequently on labels.

So, natural flavor finds its way into just about everything – even foods that are labeled organic or so called “healthy”.

Here are some examples:

In a 2011 interview with Morley Safer of 60 Minutes, two flavor scientists from Givaudan (a major flavor producer) outright admitted that one of their goals was to make food addicting. According to Mark Schatzker, author of The Dorito Effect, our brains associate flavor with nutrients, that’s why we love things that taste good.

Food manufacturers have learned how to trick our brains into thinking we are receiving nutrients, when really we are just consuming the “flavor”. This causes us to keep eating it, and never feel satisfied.

“When looking at your food, ask yourself: Did someone engineer this to be delicious or did nature engineer this to be delicious?” – Mark Schatzker, The Dorito Effect

You really can’t eat just one…

Natural flavors are “excitotoxins” that are intoxicating to the brain and linked with ADHD in children, headaches, irritable bowels, and muscle aches.

These excitotoxins are responsible for causing our taste buds to experience irresistibility when it comes to food - this is why we may remember the taste of certain products so distinctly and have such intense cravings to eat certain foods again minutes, hours or days after consuming them.

Many of these flavors consist of MSG or glutamate byproducts.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), neurotoxin that causes endocrine disorders, brain lesions, obesity and neurodegenerative disease in humans can legally be labeled under “natural flavors”.

Excitotoxins cause an unnaturally rapid firing and early death of brain cells especially in parts of the brain that control behavior, emotions, onset of puberty, sleep cycles, and immunity.

More additives in ice cream

because “flavors” are not the only danger in the ice cream carton

Carageenan

This seaweed-based additive is extremely inflammatory and should be avoided at all costs. It is classified as a “possible human carcinogen” and it is so caustic to the digestive tract that researchers use it to induce colitis in lab animals.

Cellulose gum and other gums…

thickeners & stabilizers like this are convenient ways for manufacterers to cut corners; they also are linked to weight gain, inflammation, digestive issues and gut flora disruption.

Polysorbate 80

Emulsifying agent made of palm oil and petroleum that does not ever spoil. Linked to infertility and ovary deformities, blood clots, stroke, cancer and heart failure in patients at risk.

Mono & Diglycerides

Similar to trans fat, these are fats that have been heated and treated in such a way that the molecules in the end result have been rearranged to an unnatural position.

Soy Lecithin

The sludge waste product leftover from soybean oil production filled with chemical solvents used in the manufacturing process and pesticides from the agricultural fields. One of the main chemical solvents used is hexane, a carcinogen/ neurotoxin.

Palm Oil

Creates a devastating impact on the environment through deforesetation, despite its negative impact, it remains the most commonly used vegetable oil - used in everything from makeup, ink and foods. It improves the texture and melting point of ice cream, and makes it possible to add less dairy and cut corners.

Interesting how “all natural” was changed to “quality” ^

Is it ice cream? or is it “frozen dairy dessert”?

Some of the “ice cream” sold in stores these days actually doesn’t say “ice cream” anywhere on the carton. That’s because it contains too many non-ice cream ingredients, too much air and not enough milk, so it’s called “frozen dairy dessert” instead.

To be legally labeled “ice cream” in the US, the ice cream must contain 10% milkfat, and weigh 540g per liter. It must also not be more than 100% overrun, which means it cannot be composed of more than 50% air.

There is no federal definition for “frozen dairy dessert”, except for that it’s not ice cream.

If it is called “frozen dairy dessert”, it’s made with more vegetable oil than milk and it contains more fillers (gums) and is more than 50% air.

It is more profitable to make frozen dairy dessert with vegetable oil and of course more air- selling it at the price of regular ice cream - than it is to actually make ice cream.

You may be thinking , well I get Häagen-Dazs so I’m ok, but no. Even “real” ice cream with minimal ingredients is made with pasteurized milk - which is another can of worms.

Flavorless Dead Food

Why do we need these “flavors” and extra ingredients in our food? Because all flavor, structure and life force is effectively killed thanks to pasteurization. This patented process of heating milk, destroys all enzymes and therefore all health benefits of milk and causes allergies and lactose intolerance.

Abraham Jacobi, the “father of American pediatrics” and Nathan Straus are credited for bringing pasteurization to the United States in the late 1800’s. Jacobi was a socialist and staunch birth control advocate who took it upon himself to convince the public that raw milk was unsafe for babies and boiling milk until it bubbles would save lives. Straus was a businessman who opened the nation’s first pasteurized milk laboratory in New York and produced very low cost pasteurized milk for the city’s poor.

Jacobi & Straus worked tirelessly to associate raw milk with typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria, cholera, and tuberculosis. The hard work paid off and sure enough pasteurization soon became compulsory in one city after the next, and it wasn’t long before people were being poisoned by the boiled milk.

A Medical News article from 1892 reported on the “disheartening” results of feeding sterilized milk to infants at Philadelphia Hospital. Seriously ill children initially recovered.

“But later on, most serious and baffling disorders supervened. The children who at first had fattened and thriven on sterilized milk became emaciated and anemic; grave intestinal disorders, which resisted every form of medication and treatment, appeared, and finally, these sterilized-milk-fed children perished of non-nutrition.”

Even during regular (not ultra-high temp) pasteurization, milk can lose about 20 percent of its vitamin C content, and also suffer damage to other nutrients like thymine, vitamin B12, and lysine.

“Whole raw milk, from grass-fed cows, is an enhanced source of nutrients, including beneficial Lactobacillus acidophilus and high levels of vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, K), enzymes, calcium, conjugated linoleic acid, in a package that optimises absorption of all its contents….Pasteurisation denatures the fragile and nutritious milk proteins and enzymes, and it reduces the vitamin content.” - Jonathan R. Kerr, professor of epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Escuela de Medicine ye Clencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia

“Processed milk is liquid junk food. The natural structure of the milk is ruined during the processing and the body reacts to the change,” - Eeropekka Rislakki of the Eat & Joy Farmer’s Market chain in Finland.

A study featured in the Weston A. Price Foundation’s Campaign for Real Milk presentation showed that animals fed pasteurized milk exclusively develop nutrient deficiencies and become infertile after several generations.

The pasteurization problem continues to haunt us to this day and there is much that can be said about it. More information can be found on the Weston A. Price website.

Pasteurization & Homogenization

So how exactly is ice cream pasteurized? According to the Ben&Jerry’s website, after the cream, milk, liquid sugar and stabilizers get blenderized together, the mixture is moved to a “surge tank” where it is pushed through a series of stainless steel plates and pipes where it is heated to 180F.

The mixture then moves through another set of metal tubes to a machine which homogenizes it. This involves a high pressure (2000 Ibs per square inch) piston pump to finely divide the milkfat particles for a smooth texture.

The process of breaking down milk fat under high pressure also breaks down some of the most essential nutrients of the milk and cream including vitamins A and D. It also denatures it and ruins its structure. The unnaturally small fat particles are linked to production of free radicals in the body and consuming homogenized milk has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

Interestingly, homogenization of milk became widespread in America in the 1930s and nearly universal in the 1940s—the same decades during which the incidence of atherosclerotic heart disease began to climb.

During homogenization there is a tremendous increase in surface area on the fat globules. The original fat globule membrane is lost and a new one is formed that incorporates a much greater portion of casein and whey proteins which also may account for the increased allergenicity of processed milk.

The fat globules become so small, they by-pass normal digestive processes and get absorbed into the bloodstream faster than they should, taking the hormone’s the cow receives with them. Eww!

Although much of the nutrient value gets destroyed through high processing, the glyphosate remains unharmed! The carcinogenic herbicide glyphosate was found in 10 Ben & Jerry’s flavors according to a 2017 article (Unilever claimed these were at ‘safe’ levels for consumption).

Spray - dried powdered poison

According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, heat intensive processing causes oxidative damage to milk proteins, regardless of heat method (Boiling, microwaving, spray drying).

Spray drying (to make powdered milk) is a form of heat intensive processing which causes a lot of nitrates to form, and the cholesterol in the milk becomes oxidized.

Consuming foods that contain natural cholesterol is not a problem, but consuming oxidized cholesterol is. Evidence indicates that oxidized cholesterol can initiate the process of atherosclerosis.

An interesting study conducted in China in 2019 showed that heat intensive spray drying (150-175 C) caused oxidative damage in liver, plasma and brain tissue of rats... “hippocampal inflammatory and apoptosis genes were significantly up-regulated. while learning and memory genes were significantly down-regulated. Eventually, varying degrees of spatial learning and memory impairment were demonstrated.” Freeze dried milk caused just as much damage.

Manufacturers routinely add spray-dried milk to non-fat and low-fat milks to give them body—to keep them from looking blue. Spray dried milk is almost always found in low-fat and especially non-fat milk products.

The FDA does not require manufacturers to label this additive; it can simply be labeled “milk”. So as we consume FDA regulated ice cream, yogurt, or low fat milk, we also subject our blood, liver and brain to oxidative damage, increasing our risk for premature aging and disease.

This also means that, unfortunately, regardless of what brand of ice cream you get, you can’t be sure that it does not contain spray dried milk, since anything that says “milk” on the label could very well be spray dried milk.

Interestingly, Unilever recently received some heat from China because their luxury ice cream brand, Magnum, is produced with absolutely no fresh milk, only a mix of spray-dried milk powder and water.

The argument is that it’s difficult to transport fresh milk from Europe to China, and using domestically produced milk would result in a “supply problem”. Although, they did admit that using local milk would significantly lower the costs with all things considered, including transportation.

So is it really that important to use milk from europe, or is there another motive behind using powdered dry milk?

I find it hard to believe that milk is a supply problem considering that China was the world’s 3^rd largest milk producing country in 2021 with 34 million tonnes of milk produced in 2020. In Feb 2023 China announced they have cloned 3 “super cows” that produced abnormally high amounts of milk in their quest to become the worlds largest dairy producer.

Another example, Unilever’s Wall’s vanilla ice cream is made with no cream, vanilla or milk, instead “reconstituted skimmed milk" is the first ingredient, which is another way of saying spray-dried milk and water.

Carte d’Or is also made with “reconstituted skimmed milk".

Similar to natural flavors, spray dried milk can in my opinion, be another tool dairy product manufacturers use to get us addicted to their products. Because dried milk offers the creamy texture and taste of milk but without the nutrition, our bodies crave more and so we keep eating and buying.

All these corporations making our food are well aware that most customers make purchasing decisions very quickly and do not take the time to examine the back of the product before they buy it - especially when it comes to sweet treats, since typically people don’t go to ice cream expecting “healthy”. All the more reason to make your own.

Let thy dessert be thy medicine.

Recipe

strawberry ice cream on cone — Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash

“Slam dunk” Raw goat milk vanilla ice cream

When I first made this ice cream for Nathan, he called it a slam dunk. And it really is, it has a nice “ice creamy” texture. I have never tried it with any other milk but I’m sure it would work well with raw cow’s milk or coconut cream.

If you have a high speed blender, there is no need to scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean (just cut the whole bean into small pieces before blending) and it will blend up with everything else.

This is a great basic ice cream to play with flavors, instead of vanilla you can add any fruit or spice to make a different flavor. Cocoa powder, peanut butter and strawberries work really well.

ingredients

1 cup raw goat milk

4-5 Thai bananas (or 2-3 regular)

2 Tbs honey

½ vanilla bean

Ways to make ice cream

Below are the primary methods I’ve used to make ice cream, there are more, such as using a plastic bag or mason jar and shaking it, but I’ve never tried those.

Ice cream maker

Blend all ice cream ingredients in a blender until well combined. Pour your ice cream base into your ice cream maker according to the instructions.

High speed blender

Blend all ice cream ingredients in a blender until well combined. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once frozen, place all ice cream ingredients in your high speed blender and let sit for 15-20 mins to slightly defrost. Use the tamper attachment to blend everything together, starting at low speed and gradually moving to high. The final consistency will be like soft serve, enjoy immediately or transfer to a container and keep in the freezer.

Food processor

Blend all ice cream ingredients in a blender until well combined. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze overnight. The next day, place all the frozen cubes into your food processor and let sit for 15-20 minutes to defrost slightly. Blend until smooth. The final consistency will be like soft serve, enjoy immediately or transfer to a container and keep in the freezer. Enjoy!

Thanks so much for reading!

~Julia