Häagen-Dazs Vs Breyers: Which Offers The Healthier Chocolate Ice Cream?

When you're browsing the freezer aisle for a sweet treat, healthy choices may not be at the top of your agenda. But in the interest of knowing exactly what you're eating, it's worth considering the variations in nutritional values between brands. Take Häagen-Dazs and Breyers chocolate ice creams, for example. Both are popular brands, but most likely you would choose one or the other based on the price, rather than health concerns.

Häagen-Dazs ice cream is positioned as a premium option with an indulgent texture, and the numbers reflect this richness. A 2/3 cup serving of Häagen-Dazs plain chocolate ice cream contains 310 calories, compared to just 180 calories in the same size portion of Breyers chocolate ice cream. Calorie count alone doesn't determine whether a food is healthy — as we need calories to live — but calorie-dense foods can indicate high levels of less healthy elements, such as sugar and saturated fats.

And, as you might expect with a dessert, both ice creams are high in sugar. A serving of Häagen-Dazs contains 25 grams of sugar, including 19 grams of added sugar, while Breyers has a similar 26 grams total, with 15 grams of added sugar. Where the two really differ is in fat and cholesterol content. A 2/3 cup serving of Häagen-Dazs contains 21 grams of fat, with 12 grams of saturated fat, and 110 milligrams of cholesterol. For reference the FDA recommends limiting saturated fat to 20 grams daily. Breyers fares better in terms of healthy numbers here, with just 9 grams of total fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, and 25 milligrams of cholesterol.

The recommended serving size of these ice creams is determined by volume, with the nutritional value calculated off a 2/3 cup portion. And if this is what you stick to, then Breyers ice cream is the healthier option for most people. But if you look at the label closely, you'll see you're getting two quite different ice cream experiences here. A 2/3 cup portion of Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream weighs 129 grams, whereas the same size scoop from Breyers weighs just 86 grams.

This discrepancy is one that you'll frequently find when comparing premium and standard ice cream brands. Premium or super-premium ice creams like Häagen-Dazs are made with more cream and use eggs to emulsify the mix for a smooth texture. These two ingredients alone account for the higher fat and cholesterol numbers. Standard ice cream like Breyers uses more milk than cream, and relies on vegetable gum as an emulsifier. Standard ice cream has more overrun than premium ice cream, which is the amount of air churned into it. Super premium might have just 20%, while premium usually has upwards of 60%, and standard ice cream around 90%-100%.

This overrun accounts for the difference in weight between Häagen-Dazs and Breyers. It won't matter as long you measure your ice cream by volume, but the healthier choice of Breyers is really only healthier because you're getting less ice cream in the scoop.