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Comment by magoon | Hacker News Reader

I know this is going to be unpopular, but my family spends more on the Haagen Dazs because it's one of the only actual real ice creams without the guar gum and other fillers. I looked at the ingredients of so many brands in the grocery store before realizing.

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In support: I'd rather have no ice cream than anything with guaran. That stuff tastes like plastic and gives me an upset stomach.

Guar gum is just a thickener. What's the actual filler material?

Breyers Vanilla Frozen Dessert (because they legally cannot call it icecream).

MODIFIED MILK INGREDIENTS, SUGAR, WATER, GLUCOSE, COCONUT OIL, NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOUR, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, VEGETABLE GUMS (GUAR, CAROB BEAN), CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL COLOUR.

Haagen-Dazs Vanilla

ingredients: cream, skim milk, cane sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract.

Personally (ignoring sugars) the 'MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES' is the bit I try to avoid, not worrying so much about the gums.

Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono-_and_diglycerides_of_fatt...

Seems like this replaces hydrogenated oils across a whole range of products, and I'm suspicious that it's just a way to avoid public concerns about hydrogenated oils by replacing them with something similar just without the same stigma.

Quick search found this article, which states some more specific concerns, if in a rather extreme way: https://foodbabe.com/2015/07/31/theres-no-safe-level-ingredi... (but of course you can search and find similar concerns about many things, doesn't make them true).

Well those searches sure lead to a bunch of stupid hyperbole. "no safe level" doesn't exactly mean much...

So the issue is that the monoglycerides and diglycerides might be constructed with trans-fatty acids, and the label won't let you know.

But given that this is an ingredient behind vanilla you're not looking at very large amounts in the first place.

Foodbabe.com is not credible. The site and the woman behind it have been criticized and debunked up and down. They are pseudoscience and should not be cited.

They can't call it ice cream because it doesn't have enough fat, so that's probably neutral on the health scale.

I wouldn't really consider anything in there to be a filler, it's just favoring sugars over fats.

And that ingredient list is still pretty small. 9 vs. 5 when you combine the two sugar entries.

I use guar gum at home in my ice cream as it helps guarantee a good mouth feel, you use less than 1/2 a teaspoon for a couple of litres. Why do you not like it?

I happen not to like the mouth feel of guar gum. It tastes "empty" and, well, "gummy" where I am looking for that creamy, fat sensation.

Same here - wife shops for us and reads labels closely. She/we won't buy the cheap stuff because of the ingredients.

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