Does A Milkshake Have More Carbs Than Ice Cream?

Under the scorching heat of the sun, in summers, both milkshakes and ice-creams make for refreshing treats. You can get a milkshake just about anywhere. With the popularity of ice cream corners rising, you can easily find a place to have your favourite fruits and flavours turned into a cold concoction. However, both milkshakes and ice-creams come under the list of high-calorie, cheat day foods. Even if they aren't your crave-inducing foods, you can at least agree that they belong on the list. Experimenters feel the same. They love to use both of these foods to analyse eating habits, particularly concerning dieting and overeating. So how do you relish a frozen treat and still stick to your healthy dietary regimen? The key is moderation and portion control. And, of course, you'll be better equipped to eat smart when you're provided with essential calorie information. Let's look at the calorie content of ice-creams and milkshakes, and also analyse the various studies conducted on these food items.

What Do The Studies Have To Say In This Regard?

There are so many different types and flavours of ice creams and many other ingredients and quantities that go into a milkshake that it's quite challenging to make an accurate calorie analysis. It would also depend on the exact quantity of ice cream and milkshake that one has consumed or is planning to consume. Specifically, You first choose a particular flavour of a specific brand of ice cream and then check its container for its carbohydrate content. Then look into the type of milk, flavouring and frozen dessert you would be making your milkshake from, and use the labels to calculate the carbohydrate content of the amounts you would like to use in your shake.

• In all the studies conducted on milkshakes versus ice-creams, the participants completed a survey to measure two components of restrained eating. The first is restrictive eating – the desire and effort to avoid eating unhealthy food. The second is eating guilt – the tendency to feel guilty after eating unhealthily. 
• People could then be roughly divided into two groups: the restrained eaters versus non-restrained eaters. The actual purpose of the study was to determine how diet thinking might affect eating.
• After drinking the shakes, the subjects were asked to taste and rate three flavours of ice cream. They were allowed to eat as much ice cream as they wanted and tasted the ice cream in private to prevent self-consciousness from affecting consumption.
• The non-restrained eaters or non-dieters ate less ice cream in proportion to the number of milkshakes consumed. The restrained eaters or dieters, however, displayed the total opposite behaviour. 
• Those who drank two milkshakes ate the most ice cream, identified by the researchers as a 'counter-regulation 'effect. Forcing the dieters to overeat or 'blow their diet 'caused them to release their food inhibitions.

Ice-cream Versus Milkshake? Which One Is Healthier?

Milkshakes:

A milkshake is a dessert any way you cut it. You could consume one as a meal replacement, but it wouldn't hold you over for very long. Milkshakes are full of lots of empty calories--and a large calorie number in general. The average milkshake contains over 300 calories and a high percentage of saturated fat. The saving grace for milkshakes is the protein and calcium content. Since milkshakes contain ice cream and milk, which contains protein and calcium, you can expect to consume a good 15% of your daily protein and one-fifth of your daily calcium. At the same time, you'll also consume 30 grams of sugar or more when you drink a milkshake.

Can milkshakes be given a healthy makeover?

• If you wish to go for a healthier milkshake, however, get done with ice-cream, and include low-calorie, or skimmed milk in the recipe. Also, you can put in certain high-protein meal replacement powders if you are on a diet, to lose and control weight.
• Remember not to put in sugars as it is a carbohydrate with zero nutritional value and empty calories. It will cause inflammation of the body that lasts many hours, and also cause a spike in your blood glucose levels. 
• The development of pre-diabetes comes from uncontrolled eating of sugars and refined food items for many years, and excessive belly fat combined with a sedentary lifestyle.
• Instead, you can use certain artificial sweeteners, or dark chocolates with artificial sweeteners to flavour your milkshake and make it healthier. You can also put in peanut butter to enhance the taste and nutritional content of your milkshake.
• A mixture of fresh or frozen berries, kiwi, ice, low-fat yoghurt and a splash of 100% fruit juice (not the kinds made with high fructose corn syrup) makes for a relatively low-calorie treat.

Ice-cream:

One tablespoon of fresh ice-cream provides you with 18 calories, out of which 16 calories come from saturated fats. It's a well-established fact that saturated and trans fats are harmful to cardiovascular health, and leads to obesity. Refined sugars are used in ample amounts in the making of ice-creams. It is a white poison and has a high-glycaemic-index. Hence, it gets quickly consumed in the body, thus promoting hunger.

Why Avoid Or Cut-down Heavily On Sugars?

• People who consume a comparatively large amount of sugary stuff are far more likely to develop conditions such as extreme weight gain, hypertension, harmful cholesterol levels and coronary heart diseases.
• The Indian diet is exceptionally high in carbohydrates and includes various sweet delicacies which result in rapid weight gain in the long run. Hence, try and refrain or limit the consumption of sweetened beverages, grain-based items, fruit drinks, dairy and ghee-based sugary desserts.
• A study has found a molecular link between sugar-based diets and early Dementia. As per the results, glucose causes damage to an essential enzyme in your cells that is involved in the reduction of abnormal protein build-up in the brain, thus triggering Alzheimer's.
• Grabbing a salad for lunch may seem like a savvy dietary choice, but it is essential to know that some bottled dressings such as French and Caesar, often have about seven grams of sugar for each two-tablespoon serving.
• In addition to the health risks mentioned above of taking sugar, its consumption is linked to probable cancerous growths, depression, skin diseases like acne and hyperpigmentation along with other health hazards.

What's The Result?

Neither ice-creams nor milkshakes are what you'd classify as "healthy" foods. You're better off eating a piece of fruit instead of a regular ice-cream or having a glass of low-fat milk instead of a milkshake, as they have a really high glycemic index. Overall, though, you can find more ways to make milkshakes healthier than you can with traditional ice-creams. What can you do to stop those carvings? Prepare your milkshakes and even ice-creams at home so you can control the ingredients and the portion size. 

Happy and Healthy Eating!