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This public health news below provides some insight into why I call ice cream “my last vice.” About once or twice a month, I have (had?) a compulsion to bring home a really unhealthy amount of ice cream, like a 1/2 gallon (or whatever that’s been shrinkflated to now) and just eat it, and eat away at it, in one sitting, until it’s all gone. And then I would do that again a few weeks later. Some folks repeat a cycle like mine I described every few days, with some type of junk food devoid of nutrition that doesn’t do much service to their psycho-physiological health.
One thing that I have found that helps me keep my cravings for ice cream at arms length is to eat several servings per week of whole milk yogurt, kefir (cultured milk), goat’s milk, hard cheeses (such as italian parma reggano), sheep’s milk cheese (such as manchego), and, yes, from red meat, including grass-fed and grass-finished beef, if I can afford or find it.
I really do believe that the body can derive some useful nutrition from heavy cream used to make ice cream, such as stearic acid, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). I do believe there could be a craving for these useful nutrients at the level of the subconscious mind, especially if you’re active with a physically-demanding job, or trying to exercise.
But for my money, and for my health too, I would rather derive these nutrients from the cultured dairy, cheeses, and from ruminant meats (red meat) from multi-gastric animals: beef, bison, lamb, venison, elk & goat meat, if I can find that red meat. If I’m planning and eating a healthful and balanced animal-based diet, I just don’t have the time, bandwidth, or appetite to think about ice cream or other junk food.
After years, of eschewing most fruit, because of my concerns about its fructose content, I have re-incorporated fruit into my diet, several servings per day, which gives me fiber and carbohydrates for energy for work and exercise. Fruit is now my dessert and it has kind of reset my taste buds and my sense of sweetness.
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Study abstract excerpt: “One major reason highly processed foods can be addictive is because they can trigger the release of dopamine in the brain’s reward system at levels comparable to nicotine and alcohol. Many people report eating highly processed foods not only for the calories they provide, but also to experience pleasure and cope with negative emotions. Cravings for highly processed foods can also be intense and challenging to resist, and people may experience withdrawal-like symptoms when they try to reduce the amount they consume.”
“This poll found that more than one in ten older adults met established criteria for an addiction to highly processed food. This is similar to, or may even surpass, the prevalence of addiction to other legal and easily accessible addictive substances, such as tobacco (10%) and alcohol (4%).”
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/175578/0298_NPHA-Addictive-Eating-report-FINAL-doi.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/21/processed-food-addiction-older-adults/
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90.9 kg
Lost so far: 1.6 kg.
Still to go: 2.9 kg.
Diet followed: Reasonably Well.
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Losing 0.6 kg a Week
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