High Protein, Low Sugar Ice Cream: Halo Top

Who screams for ice cream? Luckily, with flexible dieting we can all scream for ice cream and not feel guilty about it.

BUT, ice cream doesn’t always fit my macros because it is often high in sugar and fat.

I was intrigued when Halo Top contacted me about their high protein, low sugar, low-fat ice cream because it’s often the fat and sugar that prevent ice cream from fitting my macros.

What was even more interesting is that all of their varieties of ice cream are between 240-280 calories a pint!

I could eat a whole pint of Halo Top for fewer calories than what’s in just 1/2 cup of Haagen Dazs!

However, then my common sense kicked in and I thought that it probably doesn’t taste very good. I had tried other lower calorie ice creams in the past and wasn’t too impressed.

But, I was still willing to give Halo Top a shot and the company was nice enough to send me a pint of six of their seven flavors to put to the test.

Halo Top Ice Cream Review

The first thing I noticed about Halo Top was how hard it freezes. At first I thought it was due to the dry ice packaging it arrived in, but once in my freezer overnight, this didn’t change.

I learned by reading the carton that Halo Top freezes harder than other ice creams because they don’t use many of the softening ingredients typically used in ice cream. This is typically a high milk fat content or stabilizers like xanthan gum, gellan gum, and carrageenan.

It actually reminded me of homemade ice cream, which I’ve always loved and freezes a little harder when placed in the freezer.

Here’s how their flavors stacked up

Lemon Cake

This one had such a vibrant lemon flavor and I loved it. They use lemon peel and lemon oil as the flavoring agents.

Total calories: 240 per pint or 60 per 1/2 cup serving

Macros per pint/per 1/2 cup serving:

• Protein: 24 grams/6 grams
• Fat: 8 grams/2 grams
• Net Carbs: 18 grams/4.5 grams
• Total carbs: 56 grams/14 grams
• Fiber: 20 grams/5 grams

Strawberry

This Halo Top flavor had a really great strawberry flavor with real pieces of strawberry visible.

Total Calories: 280 per pint or 70 per serving

Macros per pint/per 1/2 cup serving:

• Protein: 24 grams/6 grams
• Fat: 8 grams/2 grams
• Net Carbs: 27.2 grams/6.8 grams
• Total Carbs 60 grams/ 15 grams
• Fiber: 20 grams/5 grams

Vanilla Bean

I love vanilla ice cream for its simplicity and I love varieties that have real vanilla bean flecks mixed in. This flavor had just that and was delicious.

Total calories: 240 per pint or 60 per 1/2 cup serving

Macros per pint/per 1/2 cup serving:

• Protein: 24 grams/6 grams
• Fat: 8 grams/2 grams
• Net Carbs: 18 grams/4.5 grams
• Total Carbs: 56 grams/14 grams
• Fiber: 20 grams/5 grams

Mint Chip

This flavor contains real dark chocolate mint chips in a naturally flavored mint base. It was a tad too much on the spearmint side for me, but it did have a great balance of chocolate and mint flavor.

Total calories: 240 per pint or 60 per 1/2 cup serving

Macros per pint/per 1/2 cup serving:

• Protein: 24 grams/6 grams
• Fat: 8 grams/2 grams
• Net Carbs: 18 grams/4.5 grams
• Total Carbs: 56 grams/ 14 grams
• Fiber: 20 grams/5 grams

Chocolate Mocha Chip

This flavor was the only disappointment for me. I expected some hints of coffee based on the term “mocha“, but there wasn’t any coffee to be found. It basically tasted like chocolate ice cream.

Total calories: 280 per pint or 70 per 1/2 cup serving

Macros per pint/per 1/2 cup serving:

• Protein: 24 grams/6 grams
• Fat: 10 grams/2.5 grams
• Net Carbs: 18 grams/4.5 grams
• Total Carbs 56 grams/14 grams
• Fiber: 20 grams/5 grams

Chocolate

This flavor had a nice chocolate flavor but more on the milk chocolate side of the chocolate flavor spectrum.

Total calories: 240 per pint or 60 per 1/2 cup serving

Macros per pint/per 1/2 cup serving:

• Protein: 24 grams/6 grams
• Fat: 8 grams/2 grams
• Net Carbs: 18 grams/4.5 grams
• Total Carbs 56 grams/14 grams
• Fiber: 20 grams/5 grams

How is Halo Top so low in sugar?

Halo Top uses just a little real sugar and then increases sweetness by using erythritol and stevia, which are both almost zero-calorie but natural sweeteners.

What really surprised me was that I could detect zero aftertaste which is usually typical for non-nutritive sweeteners. This is a win for me as I just won’t choose a low-calorie ice cream if it has a strange aftertaste.

A lot of fiber and protein!

Halo Top also enhances the nutrition of their ice cream by adding prebiotic fiber into every batch as well as boosts the protein content by adding concentrated milk protein.

Since both protein and fiber are important to a flexible dieter, this is a big win win for me as well!

In case you couldn’t tell, Halo Top is a great product and one that I’ll be buying long after my free samples are finished (they actually almost are).

Halo Top may not have the soft and really creamy texture of ice creams like Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs but what it does offer is the ability for me to sit down with a pint and enjoy a great ice cream treat over a 1/2 hour opposed to for more calories getting just a 1/2 cup of the other guys’ ice cream which is gone in seconds.

Give Halo Top a try, it’s available at Whole Foods and other “natural-type” grocers country-wide or online here.