food

Frozen snacks that'll keep you cool - without giving you a sugar high.

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Nothing screams ‘summer‘ like battling to eat an ice cream before it drips down your arm.

There’s no denying the best way to stay cool when the heat is on is eating something that’s come straight out of a freezer – but that doesn’t mean it’s always good for you.

Sadly, the best frozen treats – ice cream, icy poles, etc – tend to be heavy on the sugar and additives front.

“The problems with these types of frozen foods is that they are not made from real foods any more, and they often come with a concoction of additives, colours, flavours, refined sugars and oils along with other dubious ingredients,” explains Cyndi O’Meara, dietician and founder of Changing Habits.

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"For example if you were to choose a strawberry ice-cream from the supermarket it would most like contain a strawberry flavouring which itself contains 48 ingredients."

Cyndi says there are two ways to ensure your frosty treats are as healthy as possible. The first is to inspect the ingredients list on packaging when shopping. "Even the smallest change in label reading can make a huge difference towards improving your health and wellbeing by decreasing your chemical exposure," she says. "With clever marketing and packaging, everything can look healthy ... If it sounds like it was created in a lab, it probably was."

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The other is to make them at home. Now, we know what you're thinking: ain't nobody got time for that. But you'd be surprised how quickly you can whip up a bowl of ice-cold deliciousness - you just need to be prepared.

Earlier this week, Myer ambassador and TV host Lauren Phillips Instagrammed a delicious-looking mango and raspberry sorbet she'd whipped up at home. The entire blender-to-bowl process took Lauren less than a minute - so, the same time it takes to pull a Magnum from the freezer.

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"It's the easiest thing in the world! It's literally just frozen mango and frozen strawberries, two portions to one - so one cup of strawberries to half a cup of mango," Lauren says. "Then you put it with a tiny bit of water, for moisture, in your blender and pulse it for 15 seconds and it's done. It's got a really beautiful fluffy texture - it feels like you're eating ice cream."

No Jamie Oliver skills necessary here, friends. You don't even need to cut up the fruit.

Lauren says although she craves healthy food in summer, her DIY sorbets and smoothies satisfy her inevitable sugar cravings. "I've got a real sweet tooth. It's probably my biggest downfall - I'd eat a bag of lollies a day if I could. So I try to eat things that are sweet but healthy, and that are really easy to make."

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Lauren keeps her freezer stocked with fruit in ziplock bags, so they're always ready to be whipped up into a tasty, frosty afternoon snack. Aside from mango and strawberry, she recommends banana and raspberry as a quick sorbet combo. "The banana gives it more of a creamy texture," she says. "Whoever invented the Nutribullet is an absolute genius - you don't even need to clean it."

Cyndi O'Meara likes to blends fruit with her homemade yoghurt, before pouring it into ice block moulds and freezing it. "Something like this is rich in healthy fats, protein, fibre and beneficial bacteria, great for strengthening the immune system," she says.

Check out one of Cyndi's frozen treat recipes, along with more delicious ideas sourced from Pinterest, here.