Ice Cream vs. Beer

Heather and I were discussing which was worse for you: ice cream or beer. Heather loves ice cream and I’m a big fan of beer.


While Heather was enjoying a chocolate-dipped vanilla cone from Dairy Queen today, I claimed that beer is MUCH better for you than ice cream. Since it’s made from things like hops and barley, it’s basically as wholesome as bread.


The internet tells us that beer contains vitamin B6 which prevents the build up in the body of a chemical called homocysteine - thought to be linked to an increase in the risk of heart disease. It also protects against heart attacks, stroke, hypertension, diabetes and dementia.


Beer is so good for you, I’m calling for the FDA to add beer to the food pyramid, and somewhere near the top.



















I checked the Dairy Queen website and the Miller Brewing website, and both have a section for looking up nutritional information. Here's the breakdown:


Beer is better for you than ice cream! Some of the stuff at DQ is actually really bad for you. The dipped cone that Heather ate today even contained some of the dreaded trans fat.


The worst dessert for you to eat at DQ appears to be the Large Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard (Heather loves these too, but probably not the large sized one). One of those has 1320 calories, 52 grams of fat (6 grams of trans fat), and 193 carbs. You could have 15 beers before you'd reach the carb level of one of those Blizzards!



An intern at my work used to eat a 7½" Pepperoni Melt from Cousin's Subs every day for lunch. He was a growing boy so sometimes he would even eat 2 of them. After all, who wouldn't enjoy a hot sub made with ham, pepperoni, and melted Provolone cheese prepared with mayo, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and seasoned with oregano. We looked them up at cousinssubs.com and found that they are quite bad for you too: 730 calories, 45 grams of fat, and 50 carbs. He stopped eating so many of them after learning that. But the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard puts the Pepperoni Melt to shame!


The worst beer for you (that Miller makes) appears to be Sparks Plus 7%. I never heard of Sparks Plus 7% but I generally stay away from Malt beverage/Energy drink combos. Sparks Plus 7% has 288 calories, 37 carbs, and 7% alcohol by volume.


The worst real beer that Miller makes is Leinenkugel's Apple Spice with 208 calories and 26.8 carbs.