If you love ice cream but want to keep your sugar intake down as much as possible, then we recommend low-sugar ice cream. It lets you enjoy the sweetness and creaminess of ice cream while keeping your sugar intake down, so you can enjoy it on hot days or days when you want to unwind without feeling guilty.
In this article, we will introduce some recommended low-sugar ice cream products that you can buy at convenience stores, supermarkets, or by mail order. We will also explain how to choose low-sugar ice cream, so please refer to this when making your purchase.
How to choose low-sugar ice cream

Low-sugar ice cream is ice cream that contains less sugar than regular ice cream. While regular ice cream contains 20-30g of sugar, low-sugar ice cream often contains 10g or less.
Even if you want to cut down on your sugar intake, there is no problem eating ice cream as long as you don't exceed the recommended daily intake of sugar. Instead of giving up all sweet foods, it's a good idea to choose ice cream by considering the total amount of carbohydrates in your diet.
Even if you're interested in low-carb ice cream, you may not know how to choose it. From here, we'll explain the points you should check when choosing low-carb ice cream.

・Ice cream with 10g or less of carbohydrates
If you're eating ice cream while on a low-carb diet, it's a good idea to choose one with 10g or less of carbohydrates.
When you are on a low-carb diet, the general rule is that the total carbohydrate content of all your snacks, including ice cream, should be 10g or less. If you eat one ice cream a day, it is important to choose one that contains 10g or less of carbohydrates. As mentioned above, most regular ice creams contain more than 10g of carbohydrates per serving, so you should look for ice cream that is labeled as low-carb and contains 10g or less of carbohydrates.
If you snack on something other than ice cream, make sure that the total amount of carbohydrates you consume in a day is less than 10g.

・Pay attention to ice cream containing alulose
Exceptions to this rule are ice creams that contain alulose, which are considered to be fine for people on a low-carb diet even if they contain more than 10g of carbohydrates.
Allulose is a natural sweetener that tastes very similar to white sugar, and is a rare sugar that is found in small quantities in fruits, grains, etc.
It has been recognized that allulose has the effect of suppressing sudden rises in blood sugar levels, and it is known that the rate of absorption in the body is extremely low. It also has a low calorie content of about 1/3 that of regular sugar, so it can also be expected to have a slimming effect.

Click here for ice cream with alose.

・ Ice cream with 100 kcal or less

When choosing low-sugar ice cream, it is also recommended to use calories as a guide. If you eat ice cream as a snack, it is a good idea to keep the calories to 100 kcal or less.

For healthy adults, the ideal amount of calories for a snack is generally 200 kcal or less. However, if you are on a diet and want to limit your calorie intake, 100 kcal is a good guide for a snack.

If you are restricting carbohydrates, you do not necessarily need to restrict calories. However, if you are restricting carbohydrates for the purpose of dieting or health, it will be easier to achieve your goals if you also pay attention to keeping your calorie intake to a suitable level.

The carbohydrate content is not listed on all foods. Therefore, when choosing snacks, it is recommended that you also pay attention to the calories.

Ice cream with low artificial sweetener content

When choosing low-carb ice cream, it is also important to choose ice cream with as little artificial sweetener as possible. Low-carb ice cream is low in carbohydrates but still has a strong sweet taste. This is because it uses sweeteners that do not raise blood sugar levels easily.

There are two types of sweeteners: natural and artificial. It is thought that the brain is less satisfied with artificial sweeteners. Also, because they are sweeter than natural sweeteners, they dull the sense of taste and may make you want even sweeter foods.

There are many artificial sweeteners that do not raise blood sugar levels, but it is recommended to choose natural sweeteners as much as possible. As mentioned above, Allose is a natural sweetener, so it is probably a good idea to choose snacks that use Allose.

Tips for eating low-carb ice cream

When eating low-carb ice cream, it's also a good idea to be conscious of when you eat it. Specifically, we recommend eating it around 2-3 hours after a meal, or during the morning or afternoon.
When we think of snacking, we often think of eating around 3pm, as in the phrase “afternoon snack”.
However, if you eat a snack around 3pm and then your activity level drops, you won't be able to burn off the calories from the snack. The excess calories will be stored in your body as neutral fat, which will get in the way of your diet.
Also, if you snack when you are hungry, your blood sugar level will rise sharply, causing your body to secrete a large amount of insulin, which will cause fat to accumulate. For this reason, it is a good idea to enjoy snacking after meals, but before you start to feel hungry, to avoid a situation where fat is likely to accumulate.
5 recommended low-sugar ice creams that you can buy at convenience stores and supermarkets

Lotte “ZERO” series
The Lotte “ZERO” series is a snack series that claims to be sugar-free and contains no added sugar. There is a wide range of products available, including six different types of ice cream.
The two varieties covered in chocolate on the surface, “Zero Biscuit Crunch Chocolate Bar” and “Zero Biscuit Crunch Chocolate Bar Roasted Green Tea”, will satisfy your desire to eat chocolate as well as your desire to eat ice cream. Both contain 11.6 to 11.7g of carbohydrates.
There are also ice cream cakes with biscuits and vanilla ice cream, parfait in a cup, and vanilla and Uji matcha ice cream in a cup. The amount of sugar in these products is 10.4 to 16.9g, which is slightly higher than other low-sugar ice creams, so it is a good idea to consider the other foods you are eating and maintain a balance when eating them.
Meiji “Oligo Smart”
Meiji's “Oligo Smart” is a snack series containing fructo-oligosaccharide. Unlike sugar, fructo-oligosaccharide is a natural sweetener that is not absorbed as sugar, and it is expected to have a beneficial effect on the intestinal environment.
The “Oligo Smart” series also includes chocolate, but the ice cream comes in two flavors: rich vanilla and green tea. The key point is that the sugar content is low, which is perfect for those on a diet or trying to limit their sugar intake.
The calories of fructo-oligosaccharide are about half that of sugar, so you could say that this is an ice cream that is good for dieting. Both are sold in boxes of 6, so one of the benefits is that they will last a long time once you buy them.

Chateraise “Ice Cream with 70% Less Sugar”
The confectionery maker Chateraise also makes low-sugar ice cream. The ‘Ice Cream with 70% Less Sugar’ series comes in four varieties: chocolate-vanilla bar ice cream, Madagascar vanilla cup ice cream, Belgian chocolate cup ice cream, and strawberry cup ice cream.
The chocolate vanilla bar comes in a box of 6. Each bar contains 3.6g of sugar (excluding maltitol), and the 3 cup types all contain 5.0g of sugar per cup (excluding maltitol), making them all low-sugar.
The use of dietary fiber and soy milk helps to keep the sugar content down, but the ice cream is still sweet and filling.
ISUPREME “Low-Sugar Premium Ice Cream
ISUPREME, a manufacturer of low-sugar sweets, produces ‘Low-Sugar Premium Ice Cream’ that contains no white sugar, chemical sweeteners or synthetic coloring agents, making it a healthy ice cream for both the body and the environment.
The lineup includes a luxurious vanilla flavor with vanilla beans, a full-bodied rum raisin flavor made with rum, a rich Uji green tea flavor made by a tea shop, a chopped chocolate flavor with lots of chocolate, as well as raspberry cheese, mocha almond crisp and many other flavors to enjoy.

The product is sold in large 1,000ml cups, but the sugar content per 100ml serving is 3.0g for vanilla and 2.7g for green tea, making it a low-sugar treat that is easy to eat even while dieting.
The secret to the low sugar content is the use of erythritol and stevia, which are natural sweeteners. Both of these sweeteners are extracted from plants, and erythritol has 0 kcal, while stevia is also a substance with very few calories.
Some people may find it difficult to find low-sugar ice cream and sweets in stores. It is possible that you have actually gone to a convenience store or supermarket, but found that there were no low-sugar ice creams on the shelves.
At NATUVIEW, we make low-sugar snacks with diet and health in mind. We don't use artificial sweeteners or sugar, considering their safety and impact on health, and instead use erythritol and monk fruit extract as sweeteners. Both erythritol and monk fruit extract have 0 kcal, so if used well, they can help reduce the sugar content of sweets.
You can buy them from the NATUVIEW online shop, no matter where you are in Japan. NATUVIEW not only sells ice cream, but also cakes, Japanese 

If you choose low-sugar ice cream, you can enjoy ice cream without feeling guilty, even if you're on a diet or concerned about your health. However, you should be careful as some ice creams contain a lot of artificial sweeteners. If you're concerned about your health, you should also pay attention to the ingredients in the ice cream.