Filling Niche With ‘La Crème’
Amber Humphrey considers herself sort of an ice cream fairy, bringing the creamy frozen dessert to people who never thought they could eat ice cream again. Her alternative “ice la crème” products came from her own health problems and inspired her to search for healthy ways to keep her family happy.
“It came from my own brokenness,” Humphrey said. As a young woman, she struggled with the effects of rheumatoid arthritis, which crippled her to a point that the pain eventually confined her to bed.
Through her research, she began crafting foods that she deemed healthy, including natural sugar substitutes and homemade products with no artificial ingredients. Her first success came with cinnamon rolls, and then she moved on to a bigger challenge finding a way to replace her favorite dessert: ice cream.
Using a small food processor, she began combining almonds, organic brown rice, agave and other natural ingredients until she came up with her first ice cream alternative: a chocolate treat that thrilled her young son Adam. She next developed an almond flavor and then strawberry. Her husband, Tomio, is an engineer with pretty well-defined tastes, and he proved to be her biggest challenge. But she knew she’d done well when he said, “You can sell this.”
“Honestly, I was exhausted thinking about it,” she said. But she felt compelled to start sharing her healthy alternative ice la crème with others.
Aside from the taste, however, her product stacks up well in the all-important nutritional information box. Comparing a half cup of her chocolate ice cream substitute to a half cup of a premium chocolate ice cream, you’ll find the rich stuff is 270 calories (162 from fat) compared to 162 of Humphrey’s product, with 86 calories derived from fat. Most important, the premium ice cream has 115 mg of cholesterol per serving; her frozen dessert has no cholesterol.
So how come nobody else has come up with this formula?
“Amber thinks in ways that others don’t,” her friend and manager Sheri Swain said. “She sees something and finds a way to make it for herself, but make it healthy.”
Photo by Scobel Wiggins.
No comments yet.
Leave a Reply