My Favorite Childhood Snack

Categories: Favorite Food Ice Cream My Favorite Dish My Favourite Food Ice Cream

Essay, Pages 3 (523 words)

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When I was a little girl I remember visiting my grandfather's house on the weekend and I knew he’d have all different kinds of tasty snacks. One of my favorite snacks that he had was Butter Pecan Ice Cream. Every Friday when I got out of school I knew I’d have the delicious ice cream to look forward to. Butter Pecan Ice Cream is so delicious, however, I realized that I never actually took the time out to take a look at the ingredients that were in it.

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I did a little research and found 3 ingredients that I never would’ve guessed would be in just plain ole ice cream.

According to Jaclyn London, Carrageenan [kar-uh-gee-nuh n] is in our ice cream because it is an additive that comes from red seaweed. It is also used as a thickener for ice cream and yogurt to help the texture of those foods not be watery. This ingredient is also in other dairy products such as milk.

Carrageenan is the ingredient in dairy that makes most people feel gassy and bloated after consuming it. After reading about this Ingredient I now see why my body sometimes feels the way that it does after eating my favorite snacks.

Similar to Carrageenan, Guar Gum or Guaran is also a thickening agent that is included in ice cream as well. Dairyfood.com stated that “... Guar Gum functions to reduce the degree of ice crystal growth by influencing viscosity and other rheological properties, thus limiting the mobility of water in the unfrozen aqueous portion”.

This ingredient is good for the body because it reduces our levels of bad cholesterol. Guar Gum is also a form of fiber, and like all fibers, it makes for an easier stool.

Another one of the products inside of Butter Pecan Ice Cream I found interesting, is Annatto [uh-nah-toh]. Annatto is a red dye that comes from a tropical fruit and ice cream, it’s used to add a very little bit of color to it. This specific ingredient is somewhat safe to eat but the intake of this should be very limited. The reason behind that is because too much of Annatto is known to become cancerous. According to Draxe.com “Some people may have an allergy or intolerance to this dye”. It also causes some signs of irritable bowel syndrome. Although there are a lot of negative things that come with Annatto there are also some positives. Annatto has antioxidants in it that help the body to fight off things that can be harmful to cells.

If it was not for this homework assignment I would have never looked at the ingredients of my favorite snack. I don’t believe I ever would have researched any of those things because I just never thought to. Even after seeing all of the things that could go wrong in my body and the harm it does I do believe that I will still enjoy myself a little bit of Butter Pecan every now and then.