The latest is Arctic Zero, whose press release makes the standard claims of delight.
At Only 136 Calories Per Pint, It's Just What The Nation Ordered
A protein shake in an ice cream form with 136 calories and 20 grams of whey protein concentrate per pint. Targeting the childhood obesity epidemic with a delicious all natural dessert product that is both fat and gluten free, lactose intolerant friendly, and has no sugar alcohols.
Cool, that's... Wait a minute. "Lactose intolerant friendly?" Suddenly, my antennae have gone up. What exactly does that mean? How much lactose is there in Arctic Zero exactly?
You're not going to find out from the press release and I don't see any nutritional information on the Arctic Zero website.
There is a clue, and it may not be the one you think. "Whey protein concentrate" is an obvious warning sign for those who know that the whey portion of milk is where the lactose can be found. I usually tell people to avoid whey protein concentrate because of its high lactose percentage. However, there are many varieties of whey protein concentrate and some are as low as 10% lactose. That's still high, especially when you consider that milk is only 5% lactose.
The clue you probably won't recognize - unless you're a dedicated follower of this blog, which puts you into the info elite - is the sweetener Arctic Zero uses.
How is Arctic Zero™ sweetened?
Arctic Zero™ uses the patented all natural sweetener Whey Low® (nothing to do with whey protein). Why did we choose Whey Low® Sweetener? ...
We wanted an all natural sweetener that had all the benefits of low calorie and low glycemic, without any weird flavors or side effects.
Sounds good, although the benefits of low glycemic is an odd phrase. But what about Whey Low?
You dedicated readers may remember back to 2007 when I posted Beware Whey Low.
Why beware? Because, as the Arctic Zero site acknowledges, "Whey Low® is a scientific blend of three natural sugars: fructose, sucrose, and lactose monohydrate." A lactose-containing sweetener? Of course, the amount of lactose in a package of Whey Low used as sugar substitute is too small to matter. I'm not sure that still holds true when lots of it is added to a food as the main sweetener.
So I would hold off on Arctic Zero unless you're in the mood for a trial and error experiment.
I'm lactose intolerant, and though I appreciated your caution regarding the product Arctic Zero. You should know that the product doesn't affect me in the least. I can actually finish off a whole pint nicely. Just thought I'd pass that along. No problems now, and I've tried 3 of their 4 flavors to date.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteCame across your blog post earlier today regarding Arctic Zero. Thanks for talking about it. We've been in the "ice cream industry" for almost 10 years now. Carbawhey is our soft serve product and Arctic Zero is our prepackagd pint. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we will have nutrition facts up on the site hopefully in the next few days. We've updated our site the past 2 weeks and the nutrition facts were slated to go on the very front page as a flash animation along with a video. Our programmer says it's the more time consuming part. Sorry for the delay. Feel free to view Arctic Zero nutrition facts at our sister-site: http://www.carbawhey.com/Arctic-Zero-Products.html
If there are any questions you might have that I can answer please let me know. Also, I know with all the products out in the marketplace it's truly a "buyer beware" type of situation. Just wanted to let you know, and your readers know that Arctic Zero was tested thanks to our many brave lactose intolerant volunteers on the most severely lactose intolerant individuals. You can indeed eat an entire pint at one sitting and not be affected. I often times go as far as say eat 2 pints. But to date, we have not received any complaints, or comments to the contrary. Hope this helps instill a little confidence in us. We really set out wanting to create a product that could appeal to nearly everyone in the marketplace. Hope this helps and sorry for the lengthy post.
Sincerely,
Garrett B.
P.S. Again, if I can be a resource feel free. garrettblood@myarcticzero.com
Steve,
ReplyDeleteOur web programmer put up the nutritionals on the Arctic Zero website yesterday. Listed on the homepage down at the bottom click on the nutrition facts button.