Gelato has a higher butterfat and sugar proportion than regular icecream, so I'm not sure that's what you're looking for.

Barb, I'm getting confused about what you're trying to accomplish with your new diet - eat healthier, try to fix a dysfunctioning thyroid gland, lose weight, or be on an elimination diet to diagnose food allergens?

Ruthanna, so nice of you to ask. All of the things listed are what I am trying to accomplish to eliminate the problems and be halfway comfortable in the process. I have many problems. I am sure that there are others that have gone through the same things. Not a lot of fun. Barb

Gelato is made with milk. It is lower fat than ice cream which is made with cream. Gelato also uses less sugar than ice cream. Gelato has less air than ice cream and is thicker in consistency. Purchase an off the shelf gelato and see if you like it. If you are looking for dessert ideas, have you considered things like fudge bars, Popsicles (fruit, coconut, almond, etc) and desserts like coconut macaroons?
Good luck!

make your own ice cream is the answer then you can control what goes in. Ice cream machines are very inexpensive and fun. Low sugar sorbets are delish.

This post was edited by islay_corbel on Sun, Feb 2, 14 at 3:49

I understand that giving up dessert is something we all have a hard time deciding to do, but if you seriously have health concerns that you are trying to address with diet, I might focus more on other more healthy foods to try.

I have recently tried some gelato at whole foods and it was SO sweet to the taste, that I won't be getting it again.

It has been my understanding that trying to 'give up' foods puts the focus in the wrong place, so instead I try to focus on finding recipes for meals that I can enjoy that are healthy for me. For every new recipe, I have one more building block for a better diet.

I spent some time testing out healthy salad dressing recipes, because I didn't want to use bottled dressing. And finally I came up with two that I really like, that are easy. One is low calorie and the other is healthy and delicious but has the usual amount of olive oil in it.

I am experimenting with green smoothie recipes. I always feel better when I am consistently getting those into my meal plan every week.

Salmon with a little lemon and a salad with a dressing you like is a great dinner a couple of times a week. Even adding in a sweet potato or some butternut squash, are a little more calories, but full of healthy nutrients and better than having a dessert.

Soups are great and you can make them healthy. We keep trying new recipes to try to expand our repertoire and have more variety.

Vegetables and Fruits and you can't go wrong.

1. Kefir, when you make it yourself, is no more expensive than the milk you use to make it. If you purchase a gallon of milk for $4, you will make a gallon of kefir for $4. Avoid the sweetened commercial Kefir because it has very little in common with the real thing made with real milk kefir grains. Homemade kefir is more like plain yogurt, or once you destroy the curd by shaking or stirring the curd, it's more like buttermilk.

All it takes to make kefir is milk and the milk kefir grains (which you use over and over, they grow and you divide them, so you have a source for making kefir forever). No special equipment other than a jar with a lid and a slotted spoon (and the spoon is optional).

2. Cutting sugar.... Should also go along with cutting high-glycemic carbs of ALL kinds, because they raise your blood sugar just as much as "sugar" does. It's the total number of carbs for the meal/day from ALL sources, not just added sugar. Choose foods on the lower half of the Glycemic Index of Foods Chart, and choose whole foods when possible.

Even fruit juices have a lot of natural sugar, so choose an orange rather than drinking orange juice as a serving of fruit. The fiber included in the orange helps lower the glycemic impact. The same goes for an apple - choose the whole apple over the more processed apple juice or applesauce. Eat grapefruit sections with some banana slices to sweeten it - no added sugar necessary.

3. It's not clear which sweeteners you are using, and which you are eliminating, or if this is another pending discussion? I make a quart (8-servings) of ice cream using 1/4 c. of low-glycemic agave nectar (or low-glycemic coconut nectar will also work). A serving of ice cream is 1/2 c., so the amount of sweetener per serving is 1-1/2 teaspoons. The problem is stopping at a serving....

4. Opt for making low-glycemic popcicles if you don't have an ice cream maker, which would also help with portions.

5. Try this recipe for a creamy cool treat instead of ice cream.....

Dissolve 1 small box of sugar-free Jell-O (any flavor) in 1-cup of hot water. Add 1 c. plain yogurt. Mix with a whisk. Refrigerate. [Grainlady Note: Lemon Jell-O in this recipe will taste like lemon meringue pie - without the meringue. Top a serving with a tablespoon of granola or almond slices for a little crunch to avoid a high-fat, high-glycemic pie crust.] I haven't tried it, but this recipe would probably work frozen as popcicles.

-Grainlady

If you really need a frozen treat that's similar to ice cream but with less sugar (and less fat), I would experiment with freezing non-fat/low-fat artificially-sweetened yogurts, puddings, jellos, and combinations of pureed or crushed fruits.

I agree with prairiemoon2, that it makes sense to focus more on healthy foods to try!

Thanks so much for your helps. The sweetner thing has bothered me, but I have been using the stevia. To the flax granola that I made and didn't like, I have been soaking it in coconut milk and adding some honey. I have heard pros and cons about the honey thing. I have also used the agave and got some maple syrup the other day. Guess I will have to get me an ice cream maker. Any suggestions? Appreciate your suggestions. Definitely trying the healthy recipes. Made a carrot, ginger soup this afternoon, with zucchini, onions and experimented with the herbs. After cooking, I pureed the veggies. This is putting a strain on my budget. I wondered about the nut butters. I don't like that oil swirling around in some of them.Barb

Barb, it is a strain on the budget to eat healthy for sure. Beans are inexpensive, if you like chili, we make ours with two different beans and peppers and no meat. I enjoy it just as much that way. We buy as much organic fruit and vegetables as we can and that's hard to do on a budget. And that's the healthiest foods you can eat.

Your soup sounded good. We buy nut butter in Whole Foods and they have a machine there that makes it fresh, so there is no oil floating on the top like there is in some jars. But eventually when it is home in the refrigerator, you will see oil but that is oil from the nuts, not added oil.

Gelato just means 'frozen' in Italian. The basic crema recipe in gelato is aprox 2-3 cups milk or cream, 5 egg yokes, 1/2 cup of sugar. From that basic starting point, flavors are added. Usually more intense fresh fruits are added or chocolate, etc. Nothing low calorie about that. Unless lower fat dairy is used.
I made ice cream saturday using a lower fat coconut milk, non fat yogurt, chick peas, flax, chia and 5 dates for the sugar. Matcha green tea was my flavor goal....delicious.
Ice cream sandwiches with a black bean chick pea chocolate cookie.
Not sure about calories as coconut milk is not diet food but a good replacement and overall healthier i suppose.
Lots of recipes using skim milk and natural sugars using fresh and/or dried fruits.

Using seasonings, spices and herbs, ginger is good, you'll find flavors you like that don't involve sugars. You really need to wean yourself off sugars and salts.
I made candied ginger sunday morning. Used just a tiny bit of coconut sugar to get a bit of crystal. Saved the simmered water for ginger ale and planned to maybe use the ginger in my ice cream but it would have overpowered the green tea flavor. I just served it as a very intense snack. Yow, it is good.

I really don't think eating healthy whole foods is expensive once you get used to smart shopping and using ALL of it. Making rich stocks with the bones, using the ends of veggies that most people throw out...the celery ends, the onion scraps, the healthy parsley stems...
Buying grains, seeds and spices in larger quantity and grinding when needed or soaking.
A can of mushy beans when a bag dried is so cheap. A can of salty lentil soup?, when dried is so easy and cooks quickly....

If what you're looking for is something cold, wet and sweet, try making your own sorbet from canned fruit. Easy to do and tasty. If you use the fruits not in syrup, it won't have as nice a texture but it will still be sweet and wet and no added sugars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sorbet in 10 min

Poor planning, more so than purchasing healthy ingredients, will put a strain on your food budget. I don't think you have a clear plan to follow yet, and you are making so many drastic changes all at once. A plan, and perhaps making fewer drastic changes, will help you out in the budget department. Simply prepared meat, fruits and vegetables, and gluten-free grain choices really shouldn't cost you more than you normally spent. Eventually you can start adding homemade "goodies". We don't eat cookies, cake and ice cream on a daily, or even weekly basis, and snacks are nuts, dehydrated apple slices, cheese, and occasionally cookies or cake are made for the weekend if we are expecting guests. But all those snack choices are PART of our daily food plan.

Are you also cooking "regular" food for your family?

Buy raw nuts (in bulk if possible - or look for some after-Christmas sales), soak them overnight in lightly salted water (which helps them sprout) and dehydrate them to increase the nutrition and make them easier to digest, and make your own nut butters. How much nut butter are you using? We typically use an 18-oz. jar each month, whether it's homemade nut butter/s or commercial brands. I was able to purchase Simple Truth organic peanut butter for the BIG bargain price of $1.99 (regularly $4.29) for 18-oz. At that stock-up price, I'm not going to make it.

To deal with the oil - once jarred, store them up-side-down in the refrigerator. Take them out 20-30 minutes before you need to use them so they warm and are easier to spread. (I actually store it up-side down one time, then right-side up the next).

I also use the nuts and unsweetened coconut to make nut milk and coconut milk. The pulp from nut milk and coconut milk gets used to make gluten-free "cereal", crackers, and an assortment of g-f baked goods.

Stevia works well for many things, but unfortunately, not everything, just because of the science "sugar" contributes to baking. I grew stevia last summer and am using it and commercial stevia. Honey is used in moderation on the GAPS diet (which is a diet you may want to seriously research). I also use low-glycemic coconut palm sugar.

BTW, do you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, Syndrome X, or other glucose issues, or are you just trying to cut back on added sugar and total carbohydrate intake? Once again, it's about your total carb intake from ALL food sources for the day, not just which kind of sugar you use.

Are you following any particular dietary plan to help you with your menu planning? I follow the old Basic-4, and have since the 80's. The Food Pyramid and the new My Plate include too many carbohydrates and too much total food for us. We'd have diabetes and be enormous if we followed those dietary plans. You just need to fill-in-the-blank for your daily food intake including all meals and snacks.

Bread/Cereal - 4 servings (all wholegrain for us - + g-f)
Fruits & Vegetables - 4 servings (occasionally more than 4)
Meat OR Meat Alternative - 2 servings
Milk/Dairy - 2 servings
(We also have a serving of nuts each day.)

If you follow this plan while making your dietary changes, that may help you with the food budget. Stick to whole foods so you don't have to watch those labels as closely when choosing packaged processed foods.

-Grainlady

Okay, so this isn't helpful considering the original question but since gelato was discussed...

When in Italy last month, I had the requisite (my rule) daily gelato. This was the best of all, it was in Naples which made me happy since I was there exploring my mom's home.

Mustangs.. thanks for that yummy picture. Thank God I just had 2 tablespoons of my kid's left-over Greek-yogurt, or else I go bonkers with gelato's craving ....

Barb, eating plain Greek-yogurt mixed with buckwheat honey satisfy my taste for cold & creamy & sweet. Plain , zero-fat, Greek yogurt like Chobani is sold cheap $5 for a huge container. Then I mix some Buckwheat honey or fresh fruits for a treat. Good bacteria in the greek-yogurt boost one's immunity. The high protein in Greek-yogurt (more than a frozen dinner) helps to fill me up.

"Buckwheat boost one's immunity, see excerpt from below:
Buckwheat honey is a dark-colored honey that is sweet and delicious, with a distinctive spicy-malt flavor and an aftertaste that is reminiscent of molasses. With a range of vitamins and minerals, as well as polyphenols antioxidants, honey made from buckwheat flowers has many health benefits, too. In fact, this type of honey is now recommended for children under six years of age as a healthier alternative to cough syrup.

Darker honeys such as buckwheat also tend to contain more vitamins and minerals in addition to antioxidants. Buckwheat honey is a minor source of eighteen amino acids. This type of honey also has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that can hasten wound healing and may even reduce scarring. "

This is from WebMD: "Ian Paul, MD, and colleagues sent the parents home with one of three treatments:

A dose of dextromethorphan, a drug used in many over-the-counter cough suppressants
A dose of buckwheat honey
No treatment

The parents gave the children their assigned treatment half an hour before bedtime. The next morning, the parents again rated their children's symptoms. Honey ranked highest, followed by dextromethorphan, and the placebo was in last place in terms of cough relief. "

Here is a link that might be useful: Health benefits of buckwheat

wow, mustangs, I am so jealous!!! and I've never had gelato! :) Thanks for the great pic from your trip.