Ice cream might actually be good for you, according to science

It’s the kind of science an ice cream journalist waits their whole life to read: Ice cream probably isn’t that bad for you. Maybe.

An article in the May issue of The Atlantic digs deeper into the unreported link between ice cream and better health.

According to writer David Merritt Johns, it started with a piece of advice he received, that in 2018, “a Harvard doctoral student named Andres Ardisson Korat was presenting his research on the relationship between dairy products and chronic disease. to his thesis committee.

“One of his studies had led him to an unusual conclusion,” Johns wrote. “Among diabetics, eating half a cup of ice cream a day was associated with a lower risk of heart problems.”

Could it be? Well, it turns out Korat wasn’t the first scientist to find a positive correlation between health and ice cream.

Johns wrote of another earlier study from Harvard Medical School that found “dairy-based desserts” were “associated with overweight people with significantly reduced risks of developing insulin resistance syndrome. “.

The nutritional epidemiology community didn’t like it. In fact, they didn’t believe it, so they downplayed this result and highlighted another one: the health benefits of yogurt.

The whole article is excellent, detailed and worth reading, so I will not give the conclusion. But I will say this: I intend to grab a pint or two of something cold from the grocery store this afternoon. And if you, dear reader, are looking for options for local ice cream consumption, you have come to the right place.

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—Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052; [email protected]; @lizzzyacker

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