Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Arctic Zero: Coffee Frozen Dessert

Coffee and Mint Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream

When I am talking with patients about what they eat I focus a lot on snacking. That's because it is the number one way most of us get a lot of added calories. Given that people are generally either sweet snackers or savory snackers, I try to get folks to find healthier snack foods that they will like best based on their favorite tastes.

Of course, ice cream comes up a lot, and there are some pretty good alternatives. One of our favorite brands, Stonyfield Farms, has fantastic frozen yogurts that come in at around 110 calories for a 1/2 cup serving. There are some great frozen yogurt bars too, including some from Haagen Dazs.  

When I saw a brand called Arctic Zero in the freezer case, I was pretty surprised to see that their package claims that the whole pint is only 150 calories. I have had patients say to me more than once that they will choose a healthier frozen dessert - then simply finish off the carton - so I found this both interesting and too good to be true.

I like coffee and mint chocolate chip ice creams, so we selected their versions of both for testing.

The Coffee has a thin, watery consistency. It is as if you froze lightly sweetened café au lait. It is not offensive, it just simply isn't much of anything. Not really sweet, not really coffee, not really creamy. The aftertaste is like smoky hay.

Sadly, the Mint Chocolate Cookie is not any better. The texture is waxy so it melts in your mouth in a very funny way. There is a chocolate scented flavor but it is far more mint than chocolate.

So it is too good to be true. You could eat the whole pint of either of these and be left wondering why. I hate products like these because they give false hope and are everything that gives eating healthy eating a bad name. If you chose this and choked it down you would think, "Jeez, I would rather die early than have to eat this all the time."

Fortunately, there are some good alternatives - a bit smaller portions maybe, but great stuff. Here's our list of dessert reviews.