A favorite dessert many can agree on, especially on those hot summer days, is ice cream. It is a delicious frozen treat many indulge in almost as much as coffee. In fact, every two weeks that pass, 40 percent of Americans will have eaten ice cream at least once; coffee comes ahead at 47 percent. And in the ice cream industry, business is sweet, pun intended. Overall sales have been a steady $10 billion every year since 2010. But why stop at just ice cream? It is like eating a pizza without toppings and leaving the crust. You are missing out on so much more when you expand your palate to the other frozen treats: frozen yogurt, popsicles, gourmet ice cream, and Mexican paletas. But what are they?
Popsicles have been enjoyed by kids and adults alike for what seems like forever. Those blue and red and green tubes of icy juice you get at popsicle stores have temporarily stained the tongues of children the world over several times. From sugary frozen juice to fruit encapsulated natural juice, these are easy to enjoy.
For the health nuts, you will not be missing out. Allow me to introduce you to frozen yogurt! Lower in fat content and made with cultured milk instead of cream, frozen yogurt has the best of both words of being just as tasty and better for your waist. However, it should be noted that the probiotics in yogurt do not survive the freezing process. It just serves as an alternative to ice cream!
If you are looking for a bit of culture in your frozen treat, look no further than Mexican paletas. What is paleta, though? At first glance these sweet treats can be mistaken for ordinary popsicles, but unlike their neon counterparts, Mexican paletas come in a fantastic array of flavors. You would be hard pressed to find Mexican paletas made with artificial flavoring like you would with popsicles in American, in fact, they are almost always made with natural flavors, a pureed blend of fruits – like strawberry paleta – flowers, and even alcohol. If one had to describe Mexican paletas, think of them as popsicles with the flavor range of American popsicles and ice cream.
Don’t feel bad for enjoying a good frozen treat; 90 percent of the United States does on a regular basis, but moderation is always key. The average person in America ate about 22.8 pounds in 2014. On the grand scale of things, this is probably not a good statistic, especially considering 87 percent of Americans have some kind of ice cream waiting to be eaten in their freezer. Again, moderation. If you recently had a frozen treat and are craving again, maybe try something healthier or even better, not have it at all. Save it for a special occasion.
