Consumer Health Features

Hollywood Trender: Yonanas kicks ice cream and dairy bloat to the curb

By April MacIntyre Jul 26, 2012, 17:02 GMT

Yonanas is the perfect alternative for those of us who crave cold treats but cannot eat the dairy based ice creams and fozen yogurts.

Hollywood sets, green rooms and craft services are filled with food, goodies and all sorts of treats for crew and stars to nosh on between takes.

Except here in Lalaland, all the actors (even the Grips) are obsessed with their weight, which makes eating ice cream or even frozen yogurt topped with candy and sprinkles on a daily basis a big fat no-go.

Yonanas is the perfect alternative for those of us who crave cold treats but cannot eat the dairy based ice creams and fozen yogurts.

On a recent episode of “Keeping up with the Kardashians,”  Kourtney Kardashian is seen making her baby an amazing looking frozen treat in a Yonanas machine on her kitchen counter.

Kourtney is vigilant about her diet and tries to feed her 2-year-old son, Mason healthy snacks and treats.

Many people are making an effort to eliminate dairy and improve their diet and are enticed by the idea of a "healthy" treat that looks and feels like ice cream but isn't.

The fro-yo industry is booming, but frozen yogurt options may not be much better than ice cream, and can be calorific with fat, and sugar too, especially in what you top it with.

The biggest problem with these yogurt shop options and fro-yo businesses like Menchies is the enormous bowl that is handed to you when you walk in the door.

A 2006 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that the size of a bowl impacts the amount of food served and consequently eaten. The participants in the study were nutrition experts who subconsciously served themselves 31 percent more when given a larger bowl and 14.5 percent more when using a larger serving spoon.

Bottom line: When you are given a large serving bowl, portion control may be completely disregarded. Not to mention the high-calorie toppings that can be added without limits.

We were fortunate to get our hands on the newest gadget sweeping across the craft service tables and catering trucks that takes any frozen fruit and deivers a smooth soft ice cream like experience with a few simple steps.

Yonanas uses a mix of frozen fruit processed quickly. Peel over-ripe bananas and freeze for 24 hours. Insert frozen banana in the chute and push the banana down using the plunger. Repeat with frozen fruits, nuts, chocolate or other ingredients.

You take any combination of your favorite frozen fruit down the chute and it comes out looking identical to the texture of soft ice cream, but without the guilt.  I used bagged frozen fruit from Costco that had strawberries, peaches, pineapple and mango which I processed with one frozen banana with added young Thai coconut meat I scooped out after drinking the coconut water (I froze the coconut meat), and I added a dollop of frozen Coco-Lopez canned coconut puree as I processed it too, it was incredible.

Yonanas is super easy to maintain too, as the shoot clicks apart from the base, and can be rinsed and cleaned in the dishwasher.

My other favorite non banana recipe is the Tropical sorbet:

Ingredients:
½ C frozen chopped mango, ½ C frozen chopped pineapple.  Let fruit thaw 7-10 minutes.

Directions:
1. Insert ¼ C slightly thawed  pineapple
2. Insert ¼ C slightly thawed mango
3. Repeat

More recipes are included in this affordable summer dessert genie (and at their online site), and retails for under $50 bucks, website