Which Vegan Ice Cream Is Acceptable On Our Weight Loss Program?

For a Less Fattening Vegan Ice Cream, Try this Soy Frozen Yogurt or a Fruit Sorbet

We wanted to find a vegan ice cream that was OK for our weight loss program. We looked at a few soy ice cream products that were just too high in fat. The two products below are not perfect, but they are very low in fat and they taste good. Here are some tips on reading nutrition labels, to help you find the best products in your area.

Whole Soy & Co. Frozen Soy Yogurt

Amazing. We didn't even know there was such a thing as frozen soy yogurt. This company also makes regular soy yogurt.

The Nutrition Facts label tells us a few things:

This vegan ice cream is only 8% fat, 10 calories out of 120. That sounds great.

The sodium content is fine, 85 mg in 120 calories.

One gram of fiber is not so good.

The calorie density is 120/70, or 1.7 calories per gram. Multiply by 28.35 and we get 49 calories per ounce. Learn about calorie density to help you choose the best low calorie foods.

Let's check the ingredient list:

There are some sweeteners in this product. It will never be as good as fresh fruit for dessert.

We would like to see them omit the soy oil. However, the soy oil is quite far down in the list of ingredients; there is probably not much soy oil in it, or it would not be 8% fat.
We wish they would omit the natural flavors or at least tell us what they are.

Read our suggestions about choosing a good milk substitute to learn more about the problems with added oils and natural flavors.

Compared to some of the other vegan ice cream products, these ingredients look pretty good. And we get the added benefit of some live active cultures. But this product is still high in sugar and in calorie density; we wouldn't eat it every day.

Our final option for a low fat frozen treat is fruit sorbet.

Ciao Bella Fruit Sorbet

In the U.S. you often find sherbet, a frozen fruit dessert that is not vegan. Some companies even put dairy products or egg whites in sorbet. It always pays to read labels carefully when shopping.

The Nutrition Facts about this sorbet are:
sorbet label

A serving contains no fat at all. Hmmm....That doesn't sound right, since this is raspberry sorbet and fresh raspberries are 11% fat.

The label says 0 sodium. Raspberries do contain some natural sodium, but not enough to worry about.

One gram of fiber per serving seems awfully low, since raspberries are a high fiber food. They must have strained out all of the seeds to make it creamy.

The calorie density is 100/103, or 0.97 calories per gram. That equals 28 calories per ounce. This sorbet actually has a fairly low calorie density.

We can learn more from the list of ingredients: sorbet ingredients

It is nice to see a product that is not full of oil and mysterious "natural flavors."

There are more raspberries by weight than water or sugar. There must have been 1/2 gram of fat or less in a serving, and they rounded it down to zero. That would make it 4.5% fat, which is fine. Why is it not 11% fat, as raspberries are? Maybe most of the fat was in the seeds. And because all of the calories from sugar bring the fat content down.

This is a good low fat frozen dessert. You will even absorb some antioxidants from the raspberries. But this is not a whole plant food. What if you ate 100 calories of fresh raspberries instead of this sorbet? You would get 12.5 grams of fiber, some natural plant fat, no added sugar, and a calorie density of 15 calories per ounce. We rest our case. :-) :-)

For a Less Fattening Vegan Ice Cream, Try this Soy Frozen Yogurt or a Fruit Sorbet

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