Is Halo Top Keto or Not? The Truth About Low Carb Ice Cream

Daniel Thompson

on June 27, 2019

It’s sweet. It’s creamy. It’s the perfect indulgent treat at the end of a long day. It’s hard to find anything not to love about ice cream--except, perhaps, if you’re adhering to a ketogenic diet.

A single serving of traditional ice cream packs an entire day’s worth of the recommended allotment of carbohydrates for a keto diet and so many are swift to rule ice cream off limits. But don’t jump to conclusions just yet, sundae lover - could there be such a thing as a keto friendly ice cream?

In this article, we’ll give you the rundown on Halo Top Ice Cream. We'll start by addressing whether it's really keto-friendly, the issues with it and break down which flavors to look for if you're going to treat yourself.

Is Halo Top Keto-Friendly?

In moderation Halo Top can be eaten on the keto diet. It is very low in net carbohydrates compared to other ice cream brands. Halo Top is not sugar free, most of it's flavors contain at least 4g of cane sugar per 1/2 pint. If you're adhering to a stricter keto diet that avoids sugar you'll still want to steer clear of Halo Top.

In general, the keto diet places a larger emphasis on daily net carbohydrates versus the source of those carbs. If you're just tracking macronutrients then a single serving can be worked into your diet as the occasional treat.

Depending on which flavor you pick up, you'll get slightly different net carbs per serving. Its basic vanilla bean flavor macros breakdown like this per half cup serving.

Halo Top Vanilla Bean Net Carbs & Macros

14 grams of carbs
6 grams of net carbs
6 grams of protein
2 grams of fat
60 calories

Halo Top Vanilla Bean Ingredients:

Skim Milk
eggs
erythritol
Prebiotic Fiber
Milk Protein Concentrate
Cream
organic cane sugar
Vegetable Glycerin
Natural flavor
Sea salt
vanilla beans
organic carob gum
organic guar gum
organic stevia.

What should become apparent is that this shouldn't be a staple of your diet. While the net carbs are OK for ice cream it's still a hefty amount of carbs compared to the amount of fat. The calorie count is quite low, which is important if you're trying to lose weight.

As far as the ingredients are concerned they are quite good for ice cream, but you're still going to want to be careful not too eat too much.

Sugar is a simple carb. Simple carbohydrates spike blood sugar, it has a large impact on insulin. Sugar is a major reason why a 1/3 of Americans are pre diabetic. Halo Top has to include it for taste, it mellows out the erythritol and stevia. This combination of cane sugar, erythritol and stevia is what allows you to think "wow this taste just like traditional ice cream" versus "what is that weird aftertaste?".
Skim milk, cream, whey, and casein protein are all dairy products. If you have any level of lactose intolerance you'll want to stick to Halo Top's dairy-free ice cream flavors.
Guar gum and carob gum are thickening agents. Generally, most people tolerate these ingredients pretty well but for some, they may have a negative impact on digestion.
Prebiotic fiber is non-digestable fiber which helps the growth of helpful bacteria in our gut. Often ketogenic diets are lacking in prebiotic fiber because we cut out many foods that are in rich in prebiotic fiber such as carrots, yams and bananas.

Compared to Ben Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs or any other conventional ice cream it has a fraction of the calories, carbohydrates and sugar.

What Makes Halo Top So Low-Cal?

To understand what makes Halo Top ice cream so low-cal, it helps to first understand why traditional ice cream is anything but low calorie.

Regular ice cream is made from two ingredients: cream and sugar. Sugar is one of the three main types of carbohydrates, alongside starches and fiber. Sugar is what’s known as a simple carbohydrate.

The chemical structure of a simple carbohydrate allows it to be broken down by the body more quickly than complex carbs, which take longer to break down. Because of this, simple carbs cause the body’s blood sugar levels to spike. This is bad for all sorts of reasons, but it’s especially problematic for someone following a ketogenic diet.

In a ketogenic diet, the majority of carbohydrates are replaced with protein and fat. After a few days following a low-carb diet, the body will begin turning to fat and protein instead of carbs for energy. This is known as ketosis. Ketosis can result in weight loss and may lead to other health benefits, including the ability to manage diabetes and lower cholesterol in certain people. So, for someone following a ketogenic diet, the goal is to keep the body in that window that maintains ketosis.

Consuming carbohydrates - as little as 20g per day - will cause the body to come out of ketosis and thus override any positive effects of the diet.

To cut down on sugar (and in turn, the number of carbohydrates in the product), Halo Top’s makers use alternative ingredients to achieve sweetness without the corresponding spike in glucose levels in the body.

Stevia, Erythritol and the Keto Diet

So how does Halo Top Ice Cream achieve the seemingly impossible feat of being simultaneously delicious and low on sugar? Instead of sugar, Halo Top sweetens its ice cream with sugar alternatives--namely, organic Stevia and Erythritol.

Derived from a plant native to Paraguay, Stevia has been used as a natural sweetener for hundreds of years. It’s 200 times sweeter than sugar by volume, so you can use much less Stevia to achieve the same amount of sweetness.

And Stevia comes with another superpower: it contains virtually no calories.

Halo Top’s second not-so-secret sweetening ingredient is erythritol. Although its name sounds scientific, it’s another natural sweetener commonly found in fruits like pears and grapes. Though it’s technically a sugar alcohol, Erythritol is unlike most other sugar alcohols because it doesn’t contribute to the spikes in glucose that ketogenic dieters want to avoid.

Together, Stevia and Erythritol are a low-cal sweetening combination that can put ice cream back on the menu for ketogenic dieters.

Best & Worst Dairy Free Vegan Halo Top Flavors for Keto or Low Carb Diets

This may surprise you, the coconut based dairy free halo top flavors are often better options for keto ice cream than their dairy counterparts. They tend to have a lower net carb count, less sugar and slightly higher in fat.

Best Two

Birthday Cake: 70 calories, 15 grams of carbs, 5 grams of net carbs, 5 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fat
Peanut Butter Cup: 80 calories, 15 grams of carbs, 5 grams of net carbs, 4 grams of sugar, 4 grams of fat

Worst Two

Caramel Macchiato: 70 calories, 15 grams of carbs, 7 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fat
Candy Bar: 90 calories, 16 grams of carbs, 7 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 4 grams of fat

5 Best Dairy Halo Top Flavors for Keto / Low Carb Diets

If you’re following a keto diet, any of Halo Top’s flavors are going to be a better choice than traditional ice cream, but some are even better than the rest.

Here are five of the best Halo Top Flavors to try if you’re on a low-carb diet, based on their calories, carbohydrates and sugar content:

Vanilla bean: 70 calories, 14 grams of carbs, 6 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fat
Lemon cake: 70 calories, 14 grams of carbs, 6 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fat
Strawberry: 70 calories, 14 grams of carbs, 6 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fat
Birthday cake: 70 calories, 14 grams of carbs, 6 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 2.5 grams of fat
Pistachio: 70 calories, 14 grams of carbs, 6 grams of net carbs, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fat

Popular foodie outlet Delish ranks Halo Top’s strawberry ice cream among the top three flavors in the entire collection, so that might be your best bet as a starting point!

5 Worst Dairy Halo Top Flavors for Low Carb / Keto Diets

The good news is that most Halo Top flavors are pretty comparable when it comes to their calorie, carbohydrate and sugar counts. Still, when you’re keeping a close eye on your macros, even the small differences count.

So, here are the five worst Halo Top flavors for low carb diets based on their carb, calorie and sugar content:

Chocolate chip cookie dough: 90 calories, 17 grams of carbs, 9 grams of net carbs 7 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fat
Blueberry crumble: 90 calories, 17 grams of carbs, 9 grams of net carbs 7 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fat
Key lime pie: 90 calories, 17 grams of carbs, 9 grams of net carbs 7 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fat
Peanut Butter and Jelly: 90 calories, 16 grams of carbs, 9 grams of net carbs, 8 grams of sugar, 3.5 grams of fat
Sea salt caramel: 80 calories, 16 grams of carbs, 8 grams of net carbs, 7 grams of sugar, 2.5 grams of fat

Eating In Moderation

Before you go shoveling Halo Top pints into your shopping cart, there’s one caveat you should know about when it comes to the ketogenic diet. Halo Top ice cream, like most indulgent things in life, is best consumed in moderation.

Eating a regular serving--a half cup--of Halo Top will probably be okay to keep you within your daily ketogenic macros. The problem happens when you go overboard and eat the whole pint. (No judgment, we’ve been there.)

One of Halo Top’s key marketing messages is that you can eat the whole pint, because it contains a fraction of the carbs and calories found in a traditional pint of ice cream.

For ketogenic dieters, though, eating the entire pint (which amounts to four servings) is problematic. A pint of one of Halo Top’s most low-carb ice creams still contains 56 grams of carbs and a ton of sugar - more then enough of both to bring you out of ketosis and throw a wrench in your progress toward your nutritional goals.

The bottom line is that if you stay within the serving size (or maybe a spoonful or two extra--we won’t tell!) Halo Top is a great choice for keto followers trying to satisfy their sweet tooth.