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5/24/07

I Scream, You Scream…

The first ice cream parlor in this country opened in New York City in 1776. The hand-cranked ice cream freezer, invented in 1845, opened up the market for homemade ice cream. The cone, formulated by an ice cream vendor apparently to stop customers from stealing his serving dishes, was made famous at the 1904 World's Fair in Saint Louis. Popsicles and ice cream bars were created in the 1920s.

The United States leads the world in ice cream production and consumption. In 1924, the average American ate eight pints a year; in 1997, it was 48 pints per year. This is, of course, roughly one pint per week. The biggest consumers are children ages two through twelve, and adults age 45 and older.

We are a nation in love with this rich creamy treat – to the degree that, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared July "National Ice Cream Month" – and we uphold our desire for it even as it wreaks havoc on our health.

Milk and dairy products are acid-forming and mucus-producing substances that provide the ideal bodily environment for children and adults to experience increased frequency of colds and flus. Eliminate dairy foods for an extended period and eat a balanced diet, and you’re likely to suffer less from colds and sinus infections.

In 1983, Dr. Frank Oski, former chief of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Medical School, published a book titled Don’t Drink Your Milk. In it, he contends that drinking milk has been linked with iron-deficiency anemia in infants and children, implicated in cramps and diarrhea among much of the world's population, and the cause of multiple forms of allergy. Oski believes that milk plays a central role in the origins of atherosclerosis and heart disease, and he documents the link between dairy foods and eczema, bed-wetting, and ear infections in children. (Recall that children are among the highest consumers of ice cream.)

Dr. Christiane Northrup wrote in Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom that she sees “many problems associated with dairy foods: benign breast conditions, chronic vaginal discharge, acne, menstrual cramps, fibroids, chronic intestinal upset, and increased pain from endometriosis.” Dairy consumption has also been linked to breast and ovarian cancers.

Research has shown that processed cow's milk (vs. raw or organic) is not healthy for humans. An expanded list of problems includes colic, gastrointestinal bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease, sinusitis, skin rashes, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, asthma, hives, and autoimmune diseases. The proteins in cow’s milk are absorbed into the blood not fully digested; this provokes an immune response, and repeated exposure eventually disrupts normal immune function.

It’s not just the dairy that’s a problem in ice cream; witness the amount of fat and sugar. My current favorite is Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food: a pint is roughly 1100 calories, almost half of which is from fat. Technically that’s four servings, but I can eat a pint in two sittings, and I know I’m not alone in that. Tasty, but lots of empty calories, lots of fat, and lots of milk for my body to process.

According to Oriental Medicine, because ice cream is cold, damp, and sweet, it is one of the worst things we can put into our body. Cold contracts, causing stiffness and pain, and weakens our digestive system. Dampness, or mucoid deposits and moist accumulations, causes edema, cysts, and tumors, as well as inviting an overgrowth of yeasts, viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Excess sweet damages the kidneys and spleen, weakens the bones, and causes head-hair loss.

I won’t advocate eliminating ice cream – it’s too yummy - but maybe being aware of the myriad ways it trashes our bodies will create some balance in how much we eat.

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