Garlic ice-cream dream

Saying goodbye to a creative solution to a cholesterol problem

By Mark Douglas

February 27, 2007

Back in my days as an ice cream “company man,” we created an inspired (albeit extreme) solution to improving everyone’s health while at the same time ensuring their pleasure:

Garlic ice cream!

It never got to the production stage, but the marketer in me nevertheless came up with a slogan: “Ice cream that lowers your cholesterol!”

Now I read that garlic does not, in fact, lower cholesterol. (But it still works on vampires, no?)

Why now, just as the stars have started to align within my beloved dairy realm? There is greater awareness of how we should raise dairy cows (pastures, not barns and boxes); in what we should allow them to eat (grass, not grains and hormones); and, most recently, how they should propagate (the natural method, not cloning).

Can’t we just add garlic and celebrate?

Actually, this is probably a good occasion to remind ourselves of one simple rule I heard articulated by Marion Nestle, the author of What to Eat and Food Politics, just a few weeks ago: Any product that needs a “health claim” on the package to get you to buy it is most likely something you don’t want to be eating.

So “ice cream that lowers your cholesterol” is probably not such a good idea.

But let us praise the good in garlic (it makes almost any meal taste better) and the good in ice cream (it makes the child in us smile), while recognizing that anything in excess (or in combination) may have unfavorable results.

In that spirit, here are a couple of simple comfort-food suggestions: a light meal of Roasted Potatoes with Garlic, followed by a little dessert of Ice Cream with Bananas, Rum, and Cream.

We really did test some strange batches of ice cream that included avocado and a whiskey version nicknamed “Freezer-Burn.” Was that fun or what?