A great tasting healthy ice cream for your residents.

Healthy Ice Cream for your residents

I don’t know exactly why, but writing about ice cream has always seemed like a fun subject. and I certainly didn’t ever expect it would happen at Senior Forum, except maybe the ice cream mention in Tour Week 18. And yet . . . here it is. As a vaunted member of the senior living press, ALFA graciously offered me a pass to the closing night festivities of this year’s national conference. By that Wednesday evening I was exhausted, losing my voice and I had not had a serious sit-down meal for three days. My head was buzzing from all of the good conversations and great new ideas. I almost called it a night at 7 pm, but figured I would kick myself if I skipped the closing event, and I would have. The evening started with a Mexican Rodeo (you can look it up) followed by dinner. I grabbed a plate of food and looked for a table full of people I didn’t know (my compulsive nature to be networking all the time), asked if I could join them and, when they said yes, sat down and asked them what they did. “Make Ice Cream.”

Another Ice Cream Brand?

One might ask if another brand of ice cream is needed. There are, after all, at least 39 flavors and at least as many brands, but what if there were an ice cream that was actually good for you? When my table mates first started talking I was thinking, “This is cool: healthy, low calorie ice cream that actually tastes good.” It is not that, but it solves a very real problem many senior living communities and hospitals face: getting residents to consume enough healthy calories each day. Think in terms of something having the nutritional value of Boost or Ensure and the texture and flavor of Baskin-Robbins.

What Makes It Unique

The Thrive Ice Cream magicians went to work to create an ice cream recipe that that meets the following goals:

  • IT TASTES GREAT – Most important to me personally
  • It matches the nutritional values of Ensure or Boost. This means each serving has:

o   More protein than an egg

o   As much calcium as a glass of milk

o   As much potassium as a banana

o   As much fiber as a bowl of oatmeal.

  • That it needed to have 4 probiotic cultures

While liquid nutritional drinks solve the problem of adults, and children, not getting the nutrition they need, the “user experience” is not so great. Thrive Ice Cream provides all of what the liquids do and tastes . . .

How It Tastes

After telling me all about their ice cream, they suggested I try some as it was being served that evening as one of the desert options. I finished my dinner and, with a tiny bit of trepidation, wandered to the ice cream cart and selected the Salt Caramel Thrive flavor. I sat back down and they all watched me take my first bite. I kept thinking, “I hope this doesn’t taste like medicine or cardboard and I have to fake liking it.” Here is the verdict: I ate the whole thing and it was great. I could not tell that it had more nutritional value. I would eat it again and again. Thrive already serves some significant senior living customers, including Brookdale and Benchmark Senior Living, as well as several hospital systems. The ice cream comes in both retail and healthcare/senior living packaging, though what is inside is the same.

Your Chance To Try It

Thrive Ice Cream is available in the following retail stores: Walmart: Arizona, California, Nevada (I bought some at Walmart today. Wish I had downloaded the coupon!) Publix: Southeast USA HyVee: Midwest Mejers: Midwest Military Commissaries: Nationwide You can download a 2 for 1 coupon here.

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