December 31, 2024

Finishing on a High, a Sugar High that Is!

It’s been quite a year for TruJoy Yogurt, and I’d like to thank all of you for being a part of our journey so far.  This year, we’ve grown into new communities – TruJoy can now be found in seven states (with more to come in January!) but we’ve also grown tremendously within communities that we are proud to have served since the beginning. Bright new horizons are exciting, but don’t overlook the richness and excitement of your own back yard!

How Different Ice Creams Effect Blood Sugar

With metabolic health becoming a greater concern amongst folks, I thought it would be interesting to look at how different frozen desserts effected my blood sugar and share what I learned with you. For four weeks, I wore a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and ate a different ice cream every day and recorded how my blood sugar responded to each. Eating ice cream every day was easy.  Applying the CGM was a different story as the test subject has a very real and rational fear of needles.  But it was in the name of science I was able to persevere!

Hopefully you find this interesting and can take some of the lessons I learned and apply them to your eating habits and choices so that you can make healthy decisions!

Designing the Experiment

For the first two weeks, I ate an amount of each ice cream normalized on a caloric basis to the serving size of TruJoy’s Madagascar Vanilla Bean. That is, each scoop had the same number of calories as a serving of TruJoy. I ate each one 4 times and recorded the change in my blood sugar in 5-minute intervals over a 90 minute period. The purpose of normalizing each scoop to TruJoy’s 170 calorie serving size was to see what the corresponding blood sugar spike was for each on a per calorie basis.

For the second half, I at a lot more ice cream! Each day, I had a full serving of each to see if there was any meaningful difference when compared to TruJoy and a smaller serving of the same product.

The Test Subjects

• TruJoy Yogurt – Madagascar Vanilla Bean – Low fat, lower sugar, higher protein

• Alec’s Ice Cream – Tahitian Vanilla – High fat, premium ice cream

• Ice Cream for Bears – Queen Bean – High fat, sweetened with honey (lower Glycemic Index)

• Talenti – Madagascan Vanilla Bean – High Sugar, lower fat

Mysteriously absent from this list are any ‘ice creams’ containing High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Flavor or Synthetic Emulsifiers for these are not real foods and do not warrant analysis.

Below is a summary of the nutrition facts for each of the frozen treats that were tested.

Normalized Blood Sugar Results

Holding the total amount of calories constant for each ice cream allows us to see how each ice cream effects blood sugar when the total amount of energy is the same in each serving. In principal, a lower sugar, higher fat and higher protein content food should have a lower glucose response than something high sugar, low fat and low protein.  The graph below shows the average increase in blood glucose over 90 minutes.

Not surprisingly, Talenti had the highest response as gelato has a higher sugar content and is relatively low in fat. Alec’s ice cream had a slightly lower response than Talenti, the glucose spike likely dampened by the high fat content. Interestingly TruJoy & Bears spiked approximately the same amount, but Bears took a bit longer to spike. This can most likely be attributed to the lower Glycemic Index of honey used to sweeten Bears.  TruJoy has a bit more sugar than Alec’s and Bears, when normalized to 170 calories, but the glucose spike was muted. The higher protein content of TruJoy dampened the glucose spike when compared to the rest.

Full Serving Size Results

The second two weeks were a lot more work – I had to eat nearly twice as much ice cream now that we were comparing how a full serving of each compared to a serving of TruJoy. Not surprisingly, the glucose response was higher and longer in each. The graph below shows the percent increase in my glucose levels with each ice cream.

It’s interesting that the slope of each curve is approximately the same for each ice cream, suggesting that the sugar is metabolized at the same rate. Blood sugar peaks at approximately 55 minutes for the full serving vs. 40 minutes for the 170-calorie serving eaten during the first half of the experiment.  Not surprisingly, the peak of the spike is higher when you eat more and my blood sugar remained elevated for longer. 

A standard size of TruJoy compared to a standard serving size of the rest is just over half the calories but has a similar volume – giving you just as much to savor. A combination of the reduction in calories, higher protein and lower sugar content of TruJoy compared to the rest of the ice creams tested makes TruJoy truly stand out amongst the rest.

Summary

When compared to other ice creams, TruJoy Yogurt has a smaller impact on blood sugar levels, even when all of the ice creams are normalized to a serving of TruJoy. If you are trying to monitor your blood sugar but also want to satisfy your sweet tooth, TruJoy is comparatively a much healthier choice!

Taste is the most important thing to consider when you are choosing how to treat yourself.  If you’ve enjoyed TruJoy Yogurt before, you’d probably agree that the eating a scoop of TruJoy is comparable to even the most indulgent of ice creams.

Obligatory Disclosure: This study was conducted by a recovering geologist. I am by no means a health expert, and this should in not be taken as medical advice.  This is simply a summary of how different frozen desserts effect my metabolism. I do hope that it encourages you to think about how different foods effect your health so that you can make healthier decisions for yourself.

And on Into the New Year!

We have a lot in store for us in 2025 – starting with new flavors, new states and new stores. I am even more excited for the surprises that the year will bring us, whatever they may be!

Have a happy and joyful new year!

Truly & Joyfully,

Charlie

The Lagniappe

Over the past month, I studied my blood sugar response to just about everything I ate. I couldn’t help myself… I did make one very interesting discovery – As bananas ripen, your blood sugar spikes higher!

Every morning, I eat the same bowl of oatmeal, it’s my morning ritual (with coffee, of course). I buy a bunch of bananas at the beginning of the week, and they slowly ripen throughout the week. As bananas ripen, the starches convert to sugar.  As the week went on, I noticed my blood sugar spiked higher after my oatmeal.

Let this be a reminder that real food is living!