Portion distortion: Ice cream

It feels like bought ice creams are huge sometimes. HFG finds out which scoop size suits best.

When you’re out on a summer’s day, there’s nothing nicer than an ice cream.

Our favourite flavours are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and, of course, the classic Kiwi flavour, hokey pokey. We looked at the difference between kid-sized, single and double scoops of hokey pokey ice creams.

It turns out a kid-sized scoop of ice cream from a shop is almost double the serving size suggested on a take-home pack. Add a plain cornet cone and it’s a substantial snack. Splurge on a double scoop with a waffle cone and you suddenly bounce from a snack to the same energy and saturated fat you’d find in a hearty meal.

So, enjoying bought ice cream to cool off this summer is best done occasionally (which makes it more special anyway).

Avoid the drips by eating your favourite ice cream from a bowl. But, we all know it’s best in a cone, so…

Choosing a waffle cone?

Add 240kJ, 1g protein, 1g fat, 0.5g sat fat, 11g carbs, 4g sugar

Choosing a kid’s ice cream cone?

Add 70kJ, 0.5g protein, 0g fat, 3g carbs, 0g sugar

Any product examples given here were correct at time of publication. However, remember to check the ingredients and nutrition information every so often, as these can change over time.