Lower-fat Ben & Jerry's flavors are disappointing

Ben & Jerry's Body & Soul. Cherry Garcia, Half Baked, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Chocolate Fudge Brownie. $3.59 per pint.

Bonnie: Having just recently enjoyed the new Haagen-Dazs Light line, I looked forward with enthusiasm to trying Ben & Jerry's Body & Soul, a new line of four flavors with 25 percent fewer calories, less fat and less sugar than their original ice cream versions. I was disappointed. Whereas Haagen-Dazs Light flavors are all-natural, Ben & Jerry's Body & Soul contains lots of thickeners, including inulin, a gum extracted from chicory root.

Inulin "takes up the space vacated by the reduced sugar and fat," according to Ben & Jerry's product developer. It also purportedly aids in calcium absorption, is a prebiotic (helps boost the good bacteria in your gut) and adds fiber (although I find ice cream an odd place to get fiber). I would also like to note that Ben & Jerry's was all-natural before the company was sold to Unilever.

The best-tasting of these is the Chocolate Fudge Brownie, with rich chocolaty flavor and chunks of chewy brownie. But if you're looking to save fat and calories and to really enjoy the ice cream you eat, I'd recommend Haagen-Dazs Light.

Carolyn: Ben & Jerry's continues to struggle to find the right combination of name and ingredient-sacrifice that will make dieters feel OK about buying its indulgence-oriented ice cream.

Its new 25-percent-less-of-everything line has twice the fat of last year's now-gone Light line and is being sold under the Zen "Body & Soul" moniker. Brownie lovers will need to meditate to calm down after their first bite of the Chocolate Fudge Brownie: The brownies in it are cheap-tasting and dry. (Never trust a registered dietitian's opinion of brownies.)

The other flavors should leave most people pretty content. And no wonder: These are basically the nutritional and taste equivalent of regular premium Breyers or Edy's Grand.

The main reason to buy Body & Soul over those is B&J's pint size, so rarely available in premium or regular ice cream "strength," but so needed by singles, couples and people with small freezers or even smaller willpower.

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