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There's no doubt our eating habits have changed since the novel coronavirus crisis hit the United States earlier this year. I'm definitely one of those people who have turned to comfort food more than usual, and ice cream has become a much larger part of my diet. But as quarantine wears on, it's become untenable to continue eating it in the way that I have been in the past couple months — or so I'm told by my loved ones, anyway.
As I was looking for healthier alternatives, I learned that Daily Harvest — a vegan, organic meal delivery service that we've named our top pick in our buying guide to the best meal delivery services — recently came out with a line of ice cream called Scoops ($8.99 a pint).
Like everything Daily Harvest makes, its Scoops line is vegan, organic, gluten-free, and contains no added gums, filler, or refined sugars. In fact, it contains only recognizable, whole ingredients that you could find in any grocery store.
I'd tried Daily Harvest's offerings before and was impressed, so I was hopeful that it could deliver on the vegan frozen dessert front. Now, I'm not strictly vegan or even vegetarian, but I do eat that way a large portion of the time. I've tried my fair share of vegan ice creams, only to be impressed by, well, none of them. I find they often lack the right texture, and when they do come close they're filled with artificial stabilizers and fillers like soy lecithin and gum arabic. With none of those in the equation, I was curious to see if Daily Harvest could deliver.
Insider Reviews travel editor Emily Hochberg joined me in testing Daily Harvest Scoops, which was actually her first foray into the brand. She also happens to be pregnant and is leaning hard into the "eating ice cream while pregnant" trope. But "healthy" ice cream, this is not. The calorie count rivals that of Ben & Jerry's own vegan concoctions, so tearing into a whole pint won't come guilt-free. Though, for Emily and fetus, it helped to know that the calories and fat content came from whole food sources, which registered dietician Samantha Cassetty details below.