For decades, the same question has cropped up: does ice cream help blood sugar? It might seem silly. But decades-long studies from Harvard have found the same link time and again. People who eat ice cream regularly have lower rates of blood sugar concerns and heart disease than those who don’t. It wasn’t a one-off find. The results have been replicated repeatedly.
In 1986, Harvard started to enroll 10s of 1,000s of nurses in the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). They were a series of long-term dietary tracking studies. Collectively, they tracked the diets and health of about 190,000 people over several decades and are some of the most detailed and respected observational datasets on nutritional health.
The first paper to report the benefit of ice cream looked at men in the HPFS. It was looking at the benefits of low-fat dairy. It reported that men who ate ice cream two or more times a week had a lower risk of blood sugar concerns.
Mark Pereora, who led that study, said, “We analyzed the hell out of the data. I still to this day don’t have an answer for it.”
More recently, in 2018, a study found that people with blood sugar concerns who ate half a cup of ice cream a day had “a meaningfully lower risk” of heart health concerns.
A study that people might be more “comfortable with” used data from the same group but praised yogurt instead of ice cream. People are more used to hearing about the benefits of yogurt. It’s a fermented food with probiotics that is known to aid the gut. The study linked a daily serving of yogurt to an 18 percent lower risk of blood sugar concerns.
It is essential to remember that correlation is not causation. Just because there appears to be a link does not mean that eating ice cream aids blood sugar. We would never recommend people add half a cup of ice cream to their day to aid their blood sugar.
Researchers have argued that this could be a case of “reverse causation.” People who are healthy with no predisposition to blood sugar concerns and no other risks don’t restrict their desserts and don’t develop concerns. People who are at risk for blood sugar concerns avoid ice cream, but that alone doesn’t prevent the problem.
The milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) is a thin skin of bioactive compounds around the fat in milk. Research has repeatedly found the health benefits of MFGM. It lowers cholesterol, aids gut health and improves lipid absorption and insulin resistance. Unlike many dairy products, ice cream has the MFGM intact.
We wouldn’t call ice cream a health food. But we also don’t think any food should be off limits. If you love ice cream and have blood sugar concerns, you should enjoy it in moderation. It contains protein and dairy fat. The best ice creams are ones with less than 30 grams of carbs and less than 13 grams of added sugar. Pay attention to the nutrition label and find an ice cream that fits into your day. People often advise adding mix-ins like nuts to add healthy fats, fiber and protein. That slows digestion and lowers blood sugar spikes. That can be good advice. But another option is to just eat your ice cream with a meal. That way, you are getting fiber, protein and fat with your ice cream and not adding more calories to the dish.
