I will no longer buy Dryer's Ice Cream because it has all sorts of chemicals and corn syrup in it.
Ever since my wife and I had kids, I'm looking at labels much more frequently. I'm not vigilant, and sometimes I'll say, 'ah who cares?' and do a face plant into something that's not healthy for me. You know those little six packs of chocolate doughnuts opposite the coffee at 7-Eleven? Face plant!
But this was not one of those times. Here is Dryer's, one of the premier brands of ice cream in this country, dumping a bunch of corn syrup into the cartons of vanilla and every other flavor. In a carton of vanilla are skim milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, carrageenan, annatto color, dextrose and natural flavor. Nowhere does it say vanilla in the index of ingredients, though it must be what is referred to in the natural flavor listing. And the cartons by the way were reduced in size a while ago ever so slightly to presumably save a few bucks. Bet you thought your hands had suddenly grown. Nope, the carton is smaller.
So, after a decades-long relationship with Dryer's, I said goodbye. The sad thing is that it didn't have to happen. Right next to the Dryer's in a carton about the same size is the Bryers vanilla ice cream. You know what's in that? Milk, Cream, Sugar, Natural Tara Gum, Natural Vanilla Flavor. And the two are about the same price. So apparently it's not more expensive to make ice cream as we were intended to eat it. I'm sure there are bunches of other ice cream makers out there doing the same good work. But surprisingly, Dryer's isn't among them. And the cheaper, no-name brands, forget it. Those are worse. In a tub of Pot O' Gold brand vanilla ice cream, for example, you've got milk, cream, sugar, nonfat milk, corn syrup, buttermilk powder, whey powder, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, cellulose gum, polysorbate 80, locust bean gum, dextrose, artificial vanilla flavor and annatto, the latter being some kind of color.
I don't know, I just can't bear to feed my children garbage anymore. Sometimes, especially with meat, it costs more. But it's worth it. We could be part of a giant ruse. I mean, the milk and meat I had as a kid I'm sure was full of growth hormones, yet aside from a dry sense of humor, I think I turned out alright.
Still, my wife and I aren't turning back. Hopefully, refusing to serve garbage will mean a healthier life for our kids and their kids down the road.[[In-content Ad]]
