It’s the news I’ve been waiting for all my life. Well, maybe not all my life. And I haven’t really been waiting to hear this news, I suppose. Nonetheless, I’m quite excited about it. Ice cream, in a recent study, has been found to have yet another health benefit for women. I feel like there should be an exclamation point after that sentence. Ladies, doesn’t that just bring a smile to your face? It did to mine.
According to the Nurses Health Study at the Harvard School of Public Health, ice cream may actually help some women who have infertility problems.
The research found that women who ate less than one serving of low-fat dairy products a day had an easier time conceiving than women who ate two or more servings of the same. However, women who consumed at least one high-fat dairy product per day had 27 percent less trouble conceiving.
When the researchers focused on specific foods, they discovered that women had a 38 percent less chance of infertility if they consumed ice cream two or more times per week.
The scientists who conducted the study did note that this research was done through asking women what they ate over a period of many years. Therefore, the results might not be extremely scientifically sound because data was not gathered in carefully controlled conditions. There were also several other conditions that could have affected the outcome, including weight differences.
But, hey, I’m willing to accept this for the good news that it potentially could be. Ice cream and health benefits – what a beautiful phrase. Although infertility is not a health concern for me at present, it could be some day. It’s good to be prepared, right?
This information intrigued me so much that I decided to see if there were other health benefits to ice cream that had been researched. It probably was not a good topic for me to delve into, because it’s only going to make me justify my ice cream habit more.
This is information that I believe every ice cream lover should know (if only for the purpose of spouting it off at people who tell you that ice cream’s not good for you).
I found an article published in Natural Health in 2004 which contained this phrase in the title: “Six more reasons to love ice cream.” The article was mainly about calcium and its health benefits, which include helping maintain weight loss, easing artery blockage, lessening the risk of cancer, alleviating PMS symptoms, averting kidney stones and suppressing blood pressure.
For those of you who don’t like milk or other calcium-rich foods, ice cream may be an excellent way for you to obtain this mineral that your body desperately needs. One cup of ice cream contains approximately 12 percent of the calcium your body needs per day.
So right there, you have a justification for eating more than just one cup of ice cream, if you want it. You’re getting your calcium; tell those calorie-counters to back off.
I know that ice cream is not really a major health food. It does contain plenty of sugar and fat, both dietary components that none of us need in great measure.
However, eating ice cream in moderation can contribute to a balanced diet. We all need a certain amount of dairy products each day, and ice cream counts. It has calcium. There are benefits to this sweet delight.
The key here, as with all foods, is balance. No matter what the health benefits of ice cream or chocolate or even whole grain wheat bread, if you eat only these foods and nothing else, you won’t be nutritionally sound.
A well-balanced diet includes a little bit of everything: meats, grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy and some fats. Ice cream can definitely contribute to such a diet, if you want it to be.
I certainly want it to be. And it doesn’t hurt to be able to list off all the health benefits, especially when you’re trying to justify one more trip to TCBY or Coldstone.